Bank of Asia (BVI) has entered provisional liquidation.

[ellingtionia]

As above. Just notified. Glad I only ever held a small balance there.

 

[ellingtionia]

https://www.bvifsc.vg/news/press-re...s-bvi-begin-process-wind-down-operations-bank

 

[Sols]

I owe someone 20 bucks. The bank lasted longer than I thought.

 

[Frankie]

I owe someone 20 bucks. The bank lasted longer than I thought.

Can you share what led you to think it will not last long? Foreign ownership?

 

[Sols]

Can you share what led you to think it will not last long? Foreign ownership?

Foreign ownership is nothing unusual with a bank like this. It was just a surface analysis that made me doubt the bank would last even as long as it did.

1. Unimpressive management team. To the extent they were even visible, they did not have particularly exciting backgrounds. I'm surprised they got their license. The BVI FSC has become stricter since Bank of Asia got its license.
2. The times I checked (during the first few years of the bank), the bank never managed to get good correspondent accounts. I think this is the main thing. The bank was barely able to function as a bank whenever I looked at it.
3. The services offered were just standard banking services. Nothing differentiating them from the competition. I don't think they ever were able to issue cards.
4. AFAIK, the bank never had a presence or made an appearance at industry events, nor did they seem to work with many CSPs. This tells me they either had very few customers and/or a very narrow set of customers. Neither is good for a bank.
5. By around 2020,2021, it looks like the bank just stopped trying. Seems they've been practically dormant since then.

 

[linusAG]

The times I checked (during the first few years of the bank), the bank never managed to get good correspondent accounts. I think this is the main thing. The bank was barely able to function as a bank whenever I looked at it.

Do you know who are their correspondent?

 

[Sols]

Do you know who are their correspondent?

Can't seem to find them written down anywhere. Probably changed towards the end anyway. But IIRC, whenever I looked, it was never any major, well known bank that do lots of correspondent banking. It was fintech companies or small banks.

Fintech companies can be good correspondents especially for SEPA. But small banks are not good for correspondence banking, as they often lack the resources to properly monitor transactions if the bank they correspond for grows quickly.