Estonian c-bank fines Bigbank AS

Eesti Pank, the central bank of the Republic of Estonia, today issued a notice to Bigbank AS regarding a violation of the mandatory reserve requirement and imposed a fine of 10,430.53 euros.

According to the notice, the average balance of Bigbank AS’s reserve account during the holding period from 01.11.2023 to 19.12.2023 was below the mandatory reserve requirement. Bigbank AS agrees with the remark provided in the notification.

According to Martin Länts, the Chairman of the Board of Bigbank AS, the violation regarding monitoring the reserve volume was due to a human error.

“A human mistake was made in monitoring the reserve volume. To address and prevent this in the future, we have implemented additional post-control measures. We are also reviewing the entire workflow for monitoring the reserve volume with the aim of minimizing the likelihood of human errors. I consider it important to add that this event has nothing to do with the bank’s liquidity – Bigbank AS has a significant liquidity buffer at Eesti Pank and fulfills all liquidity requirements with a margin.”

Bigbank AS is based on Estonian capital and focuses on loans and deposits for private and corporate customers. In addition to its activities in Estonia, Bigbank has branches in Finland, Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania and Bulgaria and also offers its products as a cross-border service in Austria, Germany and the Netherlands.