One of the big retail brokerages in Spain, Interdin has relinquished control of its business to the local financial regulator Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV). The clients of the firm have not been able to open new positions since the immediate aftermath of the takeover and had to close their OTC exposure within the trading day.
According to a statement made by a broker spokesperson to Spanish media, the company was not in a position to cover the deposits of its clients in the aftermath of the insolvency of its parent company Banco de Madrid.
Banco de Madrid applied for bankruptcy protection after its parent Banca Privada d’Andorra (BPA) has been deemed by the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network as “a primary money laundering concern” in accordance to the USA Patriot Act.
The resulting funding squeeze has resulted in a chain reaction which reached the retail broker Interdin.
Administrators of Banco de Madrid, appointed by the national central bank Banco de España, decided to file for bankruptcy protection after limited access to capital left the relatively small regional bank isolated from financial markets and facing a run by depositors.
In accordance to the USA Patriot Act, a unit governed by the U.S. Treasury Department, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, is looking to identify money laundering violations across global financial institutions.
The unit accused BPA of of laundering money on behalf of Chinese and Russian organized crime groups and Venezuelan government officials.
The resulting run on the bank have put in trouble its Spanish subsidiary, which in turn has shaken the brokerage.
Clients of the broker have been informed in a statement that the release of their account balances will be processed further after instructions from the CNMV which is currently managing the firm.
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