FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Germany’s financial watchdog BaFin said on Wednesday that it had imposed a moratorium on Greensill Bank.
The ban is for disposals and payments because “there is an imminent risk that the bank will become over-indebted,” said BaFin.
The watchdog also ordered the bank closed for business with customers.
The bank, based in Bremen, Germany, is part of the British fund Greensill Capital, which is in talks to sell large parts of its business after losing the backing of two asset managers who had underpinned parts of its supply chain financing model.
“The moratorium had to be ordered to secure the assets in an orderly procedure,” BaFin said.
Greensill wasn’t immediately available for comment.
A moratorium is an invasive tool to put the brakes on a financial institution that “faces insolvency or excessive indebtedness”, according to BaFin’s website.
(Reporting by Tom Sims, Patricia Uhlig, Tom Bergin; Editing by Madeline Chambers)
