A filing made to the Companies Registration Office (CRO) show James Anderson, a partner at Deloitte, was appointed as liquidator of Exicon DAC on May 15th. Exicon DAC was previously KBC Bank Ireland and before that was known as Irish Intercontinental Bank (IIB), it was originally created in 1973.
A series of filings made the same day also include a Declaration of Solvency for Exicon and confirmation of a Special Resolution to Wind Up, which all together confirm that the solvent liquidation is part of an orderly winding-up of the former bank, which handed back its Irish licence in April.
It means there is no financial risk to anyone who is owed money by KBC Bank Ireland or believes they may have funds still on deposit with the bank but confirms the former lender is now in the final phase of shutting down its Irish business.
The solvent liquidation is understood to be expected to take up to nine months and any surplus of funds will be returned to KBC Group in Belgium.
Liquidation will mean what was the main KBC Bank entity here ceases to exist but the lender has a continuing operation, KBC Bank NV Dublin Branch, which remains available to support any queries from customers, who retain their legal and regulatory protections.
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It is understood that dormant accounts and some cases where borrowers had been in dispute with the bank or who the bank had been unable to engage prior to shutting its main operations make up some of the remaining customers here.
KBC Bank Ireland returned its banking licence to the Central Bank of Ireland on April 30th, formalising its long flagged exit from the market here.
The vast bulk of KBC Bank Ireland’s business has been sold or transferred to Bank of Ireland under a deal that was agreed in October 2021 and completed last year.
Bank of Ireland gained around 150,000 KBC customers from the deal.
Following the deal with Bank of Ireland, In May last year KBC agreed to transfer any remaining accounts and servicing activity of KBC Bank Ireland to KBC Bank NV Dublin Branch which is licenced in Belgium and is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland for conduct of business rules.
That transfer includes any unidentified and identified residual customer or regulatory claims or liabilities of the former Irish bank.
The bank said last year it intended to give its shareholders all of the estimated €1bn to be taken out of Ireland once its operation here is completely would down.
The exit of KBC and rival Ulster Bank from the Irish market has hit competition and boosted profits at remaining lenders AIB, Bank of Ireland and PTSB. Ironically KBC confirmed the date of its bank licence handing back on the same day Spain’s Bankinter confirmed plans to launch a digital bank here.
