Important Information

Update as of 29 March 2007

Further to the website notification dated March 21, 2007, please note that no telephone calls will be accepted either at the Central Bank or at the offices of First Curacao International Bank N.V.

In order to receive any information on the status of your transfer or for any other information related to your account, you should send an e-mail to compliance@firstcuracao.com.

Your inquiry will be investigated by the appropriate staff and replied to by e-mail within two business days.

Update as of 21 March 2007

In view of a court ruling in Curaçao of February 16, 2007, First Curaçao International Bank (hereinafter FCIB) has prepared a procedure for closing accounts and making payments of account balances.

All clients need to fully satisfy FCIB’s KYC/EDD requirements.

The clients in the categories mentioned in the court ruling need to also satisfy the procedure set out in Annex1 hereto. The Auditor's Report, as per Annex2 (in Microsoft Word format or in PDF format), is an essential document to be provided by these clients and it is important that the auditor uses the prepared report as closely as possible and reads carefully the explanatory notes.

In addition FCIB may request by separate email, that auditors confirm certain transactions were included in “all transactions“, as referred to in the Auditor's Report.

Upon satisfactory completion of above procedure, it is intended that 75% of the account balance(s) will be paid within 15 working days after approval by the Central Bank of the Netherlands Antilles, provided that there are no court orders, (criminal or civil) to freeze the account. Information on the settlement of the remaining balances will be communicated at a later date.

For the execution of payments, FCIB requests all clients to complete the manual wire instruction form as per Annex3 (in Microsoft Word format or in PDF format), hereto, unless the wire instructions were provided previously.

If you have not yet submitted the recently requested documents, please ensure the following:

  1. Submit all documentation and the final payment instructions in one package for ease of processing along with your account number for cross-referencing.
  2. Documentation is certified by a notary as indicated.
  3. In case you are unable to provide some of the requested documentation, please indicate the reason to us.

All the above documentation needs to be sent by courier to the following address:

 
ExactPay N.V.
 
Kaya W.F.G. (JOMBI)
 
Mensing 18, Zeelandia
 
Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles
Telephone: +599 9 465 0100

For account statements contact compliance@firstcuracao.com.

For any update please check this website regularly.

Bank van de Nederlandse Antillen

Update as of December 14th, 2006

Emergency Measure First Curaçao International Bank

On October 9, 2006, the Central Bank of the Netherlands Antilles, further in this article referred to as the Bank, revoked the license of First Curaçao International Bank NV (further referred to as FCIB) established in the Netherlands Antilles to operate as a credit institution. Subsequently, the Bank requested the Court of First Instance in the interest of the FCIB’s accountholders to subject FCIB to the emergency measure. The Court honored the request and pronounced the emergency measure on the same day. The measure has authorized the Bank, to the exclusion of any other party, to perform all the powers of FCIB’s managing and supervisory directors and to subsequently unwind FCIB as a banking institution.

As part of FCIB’s unwinding process, the Bank encountered three issues that had to be resolved before it could initiate the payment process of FCIB’s accountholders. The issues were:

1.      the legal aspect: as a result of criminal investigations in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, the Bank has faced legal actions undertaken by judicial authorities which it had to take into account. For example, a significant part of FCIB’s administration was confiscated which made it impossible for the Bank to analyze the database of FCIB’s accountholders and to easily determine the exact amounts owed to them. Furthermore, solutions had to be sought because of the fact that a few correspondent banks and other banks discontinued to conduct transactions on behalf of FCIB.

2.      the liquidity aspect: in order to accomplish an expeditious and correct payment of FCIB’s accountholders, the Bank had to determine whether or not FCIB’s assets had to be converted in cash or in any case come up with a suitable solution enabling as much as possible the full repayment of accountholders.

         In order to expedite the process of returning the funds on the client’s accounts, an advance will be made to all clients, amounting to 75% of the balance on the account.

You are hereby requested to make a wire transfer, on line, out of your account to your account with another credit institution, under your own name, for the total balance on the account.

An advance of 75% of the balance will be transferred immediately, after it is approved by the proper authorities.

The remaining final payment will be effected automatically, as per the instructions on the original wire, once the winding down process is completed.

         Important notice:

         We highly recommend that you print out a copy of any statement of your account that you might require as after your wire instructions are effected, the account will be closed and no statements can be provided after that.

3.      the technical aspect: as a consequence of criminal measures taken by a few judicial authorities and the fact that the server had been switched off, it became very difficult to keep FCIB’s payment system up and running. Consequently, the system had to be operated manually which resulted in additional delays for which an alternative had to be sought.

In the meantime, the Bank has almost fully analyzed FCIB accountholders’ database and solutions have been found for the majority of the problems encountered. Therefore, the Bank now deems it highly probable that payments will be initiated before the end of the year. It is very obvious that payments can not be made to accountholders being subject to a criminal or civil embargo injunction.

Those accountholders, who have not yet sent in their final transfer instructions to FCIB via the website, are requested to do so as soon as possible. Be informed that payments are processed manually and therefore payment instructions can not be executed immediately.  

Bank van de Nederlandse Antillen



Press Release 06-013 Bank van de Nederlandse Antillen.

FIRST CURACAO INTERNATIONAL BANK N.V. SUBJECT TO THE EMERGENCY MEASURE

As a result of several criminal investigations in relation to alleged VAT fraud involving a large number of customers, and subsequent attachments on funds FCIB has come into a position in which it no longer is able to process payments, also because a number of correspondent banks have terminated their relationships with FCIB.

In the interest of the joint creditors of FCIB the Bank van de Nederlandse Antillen decided to revoke FCIB's banking license on October 9, 2006 and to request the Court of First Instance to put FCIB into the emergency measure as described in section 28 of the National Ordinance on the Supervision of Banks and Credit Institutions 1994, which the Court has done.

The emergency measure includes that the powers of management and supervisory directors of FCIB now exclusively rest with the Bank van de Nederlandse Antillen. The Bank van de Nederlandse Antillen will do its utmost to as soon as possible return the funds to the creditors, after a thorough investigation has been completed.

Willemstad, October 11, 2006

Bank van de Nederlandse Antillen