PNB Banka victim, assessing options

[dvm]

Dear experts,

I'm a victim of now defunct PNB Banka in Latvia. I had a personal account there and am preparing to receive the state guaranteed 100K euro. The question is - where to receive this money? If you were given a choice to receive this amount of money either to the Georgian TBC bank or to the Russian Tinkoff bank, which one would you prefer and what would be your reasoning? I'd appreciate any opinions.

What else viable alternatives are out there these days for opening a personal account for receiving such a transfer?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Marc Jacob]

You can basically go to Citadele in Latvia and ask the transfer of your funds to any accounts under your name, in the meantime you can also ask to Citadele to open a personal account for you. Regarding your question, i would probably transfer to Georgia.

 

[Flatworld]

https://eng.lsm.lv/article/economy/banks/citadele-bank-to-process-pnb-bank-client-payouts.a329048/
Citadele bank will handle the process of paying depositors in PNB bank the money they are owed, Latvia's financial regulator and other officials said August 17.

https://www.citadele.lv/en/customer-support/pnb/

 

[Martin Everson]

I would go with Georgia.

However does your nationality or residency prevent you from opening with another EU bank to keep the deposit guarantee?

 

[dvm]

You can basically go to Citadele in Latvia and ask the transfer of your funds to any accounts under your name, in the meantime you can also ask to Citadele to open a personal account for you. Regarding your question, i would probably transfer to Georgia.

I'm not a EU resident/citizen, therefore Citadele refuses to open an account with them. As far as I understand, Latvian banks refuse to open personal accounts for non-EU people these days. Otherwise, opening an account in Citadele would be convenient for this purpose.

Would you please elaborate why you would prefer Georgia over Russia?

 

[dvm]

Citadele bank will handle the process of paying depositors in PNB bank the money they are owed, Latvia's financial regulator and other officials said August 17.

Yes, Citadele handles payouts, but they don't open personal accounts for non-EU residents. This is your headache to provide them with an account to receive this money.

 

[dvm]

I would go with Georgia.

Would you please elaborate on your reasoning?

However does your nationality or residency prevent you from opening with another EU bank to keep the deposit guarantee?

I'm a citizen of Ukraine, this probably limits the available options to me. However, I'm in the middle of researching the european banks, so far I've figured that CIM Banque opens personal accounts, even remotely. But when it comes to withdrawing money from them their fees are kind of high: besides quarterly fees, they also charge fees for transferring money from your current account to your card account and then they also charge quite a significant % when you withdraw the money from the card overseas.

Do you know of any other viable european options?

 

[Mr Magoo]

Will PNB accept a transfer to an EMI (TW, Paysera etc)? Open a brokerage account and have it transferred there.

 

[neweraoffshore]

I don't know if Gerogia is such a good solution. In my opinion, in Georgie the next bank crisis will take place... it will be the same as in cyprus a few years ago. But there won't be the EU this time to bail out the banks with russian mobster bank accounts.... It's almost the same setup as the cyprus crisis. The banks are super fast expanding as they get more and more international black money. Here because of the missing CRS, then they invest this money, they hand out loans and pay high banker boni. As everybody should have realized, the next crisis is on the edge. Their investments will be worth less, the loans won't be paid back and the boni milked the banks like crazy. Georgia won't milk their citizens like the EU did to bail out the banks. I am quite sure that we will see some bankrupt Georgian banks within the next few years.

 

[dvm]

Will PNB accept a transfer to an EMI (TW, Paysera etc)?

The payouts are done by Citadele, and as far as I know they can transfer to an EMI, as long as the account belongs to the same person. However, I'm reluctant to transfer to an EMI as the amount is quite substantial.

Open a brokerage account and have it transferred there.

I was thinking about this (from reading this forum), but I have a vague idea of how this solution works. Should I open an investment account in some institution and then give its banking details to Citadele and ask them to transfer the money there as if it was a personal checking/current account? Is this how it works?

 

[Marc Jacob]

CIM Banque is a good option, i know this bank since many years and they have always been serious guys, so fees are high but service is good. I guess epayments open accounts for Ukraine citizens (you need to confirm this info). Don't forget that once you have found a solution, you will have to go personnally to the Head quarter of Citadele for transferring the funds, but that's not a big deal if you are a Ukraine citizen.

 

[dvm]

I guess epayments open accounts for Ukraine citizens (you need to confirm this info).

I believe they do, but I would rather try to find a real bank first and resort to an EMI if absolutely nothing else works out. To me funds being insured is #1 requirement at the moment, as I've just lost almost as much as the state guarantees in PNB, don't really want to lose the rest.

 

[Runway]

Search here for dukascopy, not long time ago there was a feedback posted here on opening a personal account with them

 

[Martin Everson]

Would you please elaborate why you would prefer Georgia over Russia?

I lived in Georgia once upon a time so it is personal preference.

 

[Samuel Newman]

OP, you may try also Epayments account

do not do it with Transferwise, for sure, they will block your account once you get paid

CIM bank -it may take for a long to open an account

as you are Ukrainian it may be suitable for you to visit Poland and open account there, so you can stay in EU guarantee
also Polish banks have reasonable fees

 

[Marc Jacob]

BTW buddy, try to contact the MTB : General , I know that they are more opened to non-residents than sweds banks. You also have the option to go to the Blueorange, but this bank is widely known as a laundromat, so it's up to you.

 

[fshore]

I would trust transferwise with 100k, at least for a little while