Bawag deal will lead to sale
Austrian bank to reach deal with US authorities, then put itself up for sale
Bawag, the Austiran bank caught up in Refco’s collapse, is to put itself up
for sale next month after settling with US authorities over the Refco case.
The bank had approved a $400m (£210m) loan to Phillip Bennett, Refco’s chief
executive, hours before the broker announced it had hidden a similar amount of
bad debt triggering its collapse.
Bawag is expected to reach a settlement with US authorities this week, paying
a fine of about $650m, much of it to go to Refco creditors and investors,
The Times reports this morning.
Bawag has itself had its own issues with bad debts, disclosing in March that
it had hidden 1bn euros (£680m) of losses of its own, the paper says.