PANews reported on June 13 that according to CoinDesk, FlowBank, a Swiss online bank that provides cryptocurrency services to customers, has been closed by the Swiss financial regulator and filed for bankruptcy. The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) announced the decision to close FlowBank on Thursday, saying that the bank "no longer has sufficient capital to maintain its banking business" and that the minimum capital requirements have been "seriously violated." FINMA also said that "there are good reasons to worry that the bank is currently over-indebted" and that "there is no prospect of restructuring." In a letter to customers posted on its website, FlowBank said that FINMA made the decision to close the bank yesterday. Swiss law firm Walder Wyss has been appointed by FINMA as the bank's bankruptcy liquidator.
According to a document published on FINMA's website, FlowBank customers who deposited up to 100,000 Swiss francs (about $111,710) will be considered protected and will receive a refund within seven business days. However, the future of customers' crypto deposits is unclear. FINMA said it is up to the liquidator whether cryptocurrencies are classified as custodial assets and treated as securities during the bankruptcy process, or whether they are considered "claims against the bank."
FlowBank was founded in 2020 and has extensive ties to cryptocurrency, including partial ownership by crypto asset manager CoinShares, which acquired a 9% stake in the bank for $11.8 million in 2021. Following CoinShares’ investment, the bank began offering customers the ability to buy, sell, and hold cryptocurrencies and other tokenized assets directly from their FlowBank accounts.
