On Thursday 1 September, the European Commission announced that it had concluded that the agreement reached between Austria and the creditors of Heta Asset Resolution AG, the 'bad bank' created in 2014 to manage the liabilities of the former regional bank Hypo Group Alpe Adria (HGAA), contains no new state aid element.
The agreement governs the unpaid debts and Austrian state guarantees of the bank, which was dismantled after it got into difficulties during the financial crisis. There is no new state aid, as it is simply a payment to the beneficiaries of a public guarantee already in place, the Commission explained.
HGAA began to receive aid from Austria in December 2008. A number of other support measures were taken by the public authorities in favour of the bank. In total, the bank benefited from aid of €2.85 billion in capital or in the form of guarantees on capital, guarantees on its assets to the tune of €300 million and refinancing guarantees for an amount of €1.35 billion. The European Commission approved the wind-down plan of the bank in December 2013 (see EUROPE 10913). (Original in French by Elodie Lamer)