It is expected that the acquisition of MP Bank of the now state-run SPRON saving bank’s branch network and online unit Netbankinn can be completed in the following days, even today, and that three of SPRON’s branches in Reykjavík can reopen next week.
The SPRON branch on Borgartún. Photo by Eygló Svala Arnarsdóttir.
“I think people are coming to realize that this might be the only option besides the state-run banking system in the future,” chairman of MP Bank Margeir Pétursson told Fréttabladid.
MP Bank is currently waiting for approval from the Financial Supervisory Authority (FME) since the SPRON resolution committee accepted its ISK 800 million (USD 6.2 million, EUR 4.7 million) acquisition offer.
According to Pétursson, the FME is waiting for the Central Bank’s review of the acquisition and the agreement reached between MP Bank and the new state-run Kaupthing.
The agreement involves MP Bank providing Kaupthing with loans for the deposits which SPRON’s old customers might relocate to new SPRON run by MP Bank.
All of SPRON’s deposits were moved to Kaupthing when SPRON was nationalized last month and the representatives of Kaupthing were concerned that Kaupthing would not be able to withstand SPRON’s customers relocating their accounts to SPRON once its branches would reopen with MP Bank’s acquisition.
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