Initially, the trustees of DSB Bank had the plan to sell everything in 2010, in order to be able to pay out to creditors a year later. It would ultimately take more than twelve years before the bankruptcy was officially completed on Tuesday, with the sale of about 1.4 billion euros in DSB loans to NIBC Bank. Children who were born on October 19, 2009, the day on which DSB went bankrupt, are now in the eighth grade of primary school. DSB, which bore the initials of founder, chairman of the board and sole shareholder Dirk Scheringa, was a rapidly growing consumer bank and insurer in the first years after the turn of the century. Scheringa became a public figure as the owner and president of football club AZ, founder of a skating team and a museum of modern art.
In the summer of 2009, AZ became champion, but with main sponsor DSB Bank, things had been going less and less well for some time. The bank provided insurance with high commissions and linked it to mortgages, a model that proved unsustainable in the long term. Customers with DSB mortgages had to repay increasingly higher amounts, causing customers to revolt. When Pieter Lakeman and his Stichting Hypotheekleding called on DSB savers to withdraw their money from the bank, DSB Bank was unable to overcome its liquidity problems after a bank run and went bankrupt.
Trustees Rutger Schimmelpenninck and Ben Knüppe looked back with satisfaction on Tuesday at the settlement of the bankruptcy, although they admit that it took a very long time, including to clean up the loan portfolio. However, time was ticking in their favor; in the years following the bankruptcy, the market for DSB loans improved significantly. House prices rose sharply and interest rates fell below zero.
Scheringa herself has always disagreed with the bankruptcy, and felt that the bank could still be saved. With the help of a foundation financed by entrepreneurs, he has held the state liable for 830 million euros.
This is how things went wrong with DSB Bank: DSB was an ATM for Dirk Schering:
Money left over for interest compensation
DSB (since last week no longer ‘Bank’) paid out a total of 12.5 billion euros, thereby compensating all creditors. Savers of up to EUR 100,000 could claim their savings thanks to the deposit guarantee scheme, which was provided by the five major Dutch consumer banks. Those who fell outside received an offer from the trustees in 2015 – which was accepted by 99 percent.
After this ‘balancing act’, in which both creditors and duped account holders had to be compensated, even 650 million euros remained. And that is good news for the more than 280,000 duped savers, who are still entitled to partial compensation for twelve years of missed interest. That won’t be the full amount; the 650 million euros is not sufficient to pay off the 780 million euros in interest claims. De Nederlandsche Bank is by far the largest claimant on behalf of the five Dutch consumer banks. Nevertheless, consumers can still look forward to money, because it is paid out ‘proportionally’ by a specially appointed liquidator. It will not make savers rich. For most of them, this amount will vary from “a few cents” to “a tenner”, according to the trustees. Savers who wish to claim this overdue interest must contact DSB themselves.
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