Three statements issued by three companies from the Cinkciarz.pl group. They include accusations against two Polish banks and the announcement of lawsuits for a total amount of PLN 2 billion. Cinkciarz.pl and Contoxia brought actions against financial institutions. One of the accused banks hit the ball by writing about diverting attention from the problems of the currency exchange office. The spokesman for the Polish Financial Supervision Authority also commented on Conotoxia’s statement.
fot. FOTOGRIN / / Shutterstock
Cinkciarz.pl and Conotoxia announced they would sue mBank and Bank BPS, accusing them of obstructing their operations. The amount they intend to demand from financial institutions amounts to PLN 2 billion in total. On October 7, the media received three announcements issued on behalf of three different companies belonging to the Cinkciarz.pl group:
The first one from Cinkciarz.pl directed against BPS Bank, in which the company announces that it will file a lawsuit against it for PLN 500 million and accuses it of banking collusion aimed at hindering the conduct of currency exchange activities. “Bank BPS prevented the company from making return transfers to customers, explaining it by alleged IT problems. In fact, the actions of Bank BPS, which began on September 26 this year and continue to this day, constitute deliberate and systematic obstruction of access to the market, aimed against the company and its customers,” it said. Cinkciarz’s statement.
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The second message from Conotoxia Sp. z o. o. aimed at mBank, in which the company announces that it will soon sue the institution, demanding compensation of at least PLN 1 billion. In this case, the charge is “unlawful obstruction of market access, including recently the refusal to grant a bank guarantee, even though the company had full coverage for it with its own funds.” According to Conotoxia, mBank was aware that obtaining a guarantee was one of the KNF’s post-audit recommendations and refused to grant it, citing the competitiveness of Conotoxia sp. z o. o. as a domestic payment institution.
“The decision of mBank SA constitutes a gross violation of the principles of fair competition and the principles of equal treatment of enterprises. The bank has introduced an unofficial, total ban on financing entities from the Cinkciarz.pl group, which clearly harms the interests of these companies, but above all – harms the good of customers,” we read in the statement companies.
The third statement, by Conotoxia LTD – also addressed to mBank, in which the company accuses the bank of illegally blocking its bank accounts and announces a lawsuit for damages in the amount of PLN 500 million. As stated in the announcement, as a result of such action, not only the company but also its clients lost access to funds. The blocked accounts were intended only for financial operations with clients, which meant that they could not withdraw funds and make deposits into the accounts, “which exposed them to uncontrolled management of open positions on the market (the inability to deposit means the inability to increase the margin, which may lead to automatic closing of the transaction at a loss).
“The actions of mBank SA also resulted in Conotoxia Ltd.’s inability to fulfill its statutory obligation to withdraw funds within 24 hours and resulted in the need to service the customer through foreign banks (generating huge commission costs),” the statement said.
Conotoxia Ltd. is a company registered in Cyprus that operates the CFD broker platform – Conotoxia. In a statement regarding the lawsuit against mBank, the company claims that the bank did not support its decisions with appropriate regulations and exposed it to high reputational and operational risk. Conotoxia Ltd. was to report this incident to the supervisory authorities under the MIFID II Directive, as well as to the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection and the prosecutor’s office.
The bank responds: we are analyzing the possibility of filing a defamation lawsuit
Bankier.pl sent questions to mBank and Bank BPS regarding the statements of Cinkciarz.pl, Conotoxia sp. z o. o. and Conotoxia Ltd.
mBank refused to comment. “Issues related to relations between financial institutions are within the competence of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority, which has all information regarding these matters and that is why we refer to them,” the bank’s spokeswoman replied.
BPS Bank sent a statement to our editorial office in which it claims that the announcement by Cinkciarz.pl is an attempt to divert attention from the company’s problems.
Statement of Bank BPS SA to the statement of Cinkciarz.pl sp. z o. o. of October 7, 2024 at 10:20
In response to the statement of Cinkciarz.pl sp. z o. o. informing about the intention to file a lawsuit against BPS Bank for the amount of PLN 500 million, Bank Polskiej Spółdzielczości SA strongly denies that it prevents any of its clients from making bank transfers, in particular explaining it by alleged IT problems. All transfers ordered through the channels provided by the Bank to its clients are carried out on an ongoing basis and in accordance with applicable regulations (in particular regulations on the prevention of money laundering) and internal regulations.
In the case of Cinkciarz, in recent days there have been cases of refusals to make transfers due to the implementation of financial security measures. However, most of them were implemented after Cinkciarz provided the information required by law and AML procedures.
The Bank perceives today’s statement by Conotiarz as another action by the Management Board of Conotiarz, which is intended to divert public attention from Coinkciarz’s growing problems related to reports of its illegal activities, which have already met with a reaction from the Prosecutor’s Office and the Polish Financial Supervision Authority.
At the same time, we would like to inform you that due to the defamatory nature of today’s statement by Conotoxia, the Bank is analyzing the possibility of taking legal action against Conotiarz aimed at protecting the Bank’s personal rights.
The Polish Financial Supervision Authority takes a stance on Cinkciarz’s announcements
In the afternoon of October 7, Jacek Barszczewski, spokesman for the Polish Financial Supervision Authority, commented on the announcement issued by Contoxia sp. z o. o. on the X platform. In the entry, he questioned the company’s narrative, pointing out that it had not received a “recommendation to conclude a guarantee agreement” from the Polish Financial Supervision Authority, which was announced in the statement.
🔸 Conotoxia sp. z o. o. did not receive a “recommendation to conclude a guarantee agreement” from the Polish Financial Supervision Authority – as it is clearly presented in its statement.
🔸 Even if such a recommendation were issued, it would not result in any potential guarantors (banks…
— Jacek Barszczewski (@JMBarszczewski) October 7, 2024
Jacek Barszczewski regarding announcements from Cinkciarz.pl and Conotoxia (X)
Problems with transfers, the Polish Financial Supervision Authority and the prosecutor’s office
In the first announcement regarding Bank BPS, Cinkciarz.pl claims that Bank BPS prevented the company from making return transfers to customers, explaining it by alleged IT problems. Cinkciarz himself used a similar argument, explaining to our portal the delays in the transfer of funds reported by its clients, which, according to the company’s declarations, were supposed to take up to 8 hours, but for some time now they have often occurred only after a few days.
On September 9, in response to our editorial team’s questions, a spokesman for Cinkciarz.pl informed us that the delay was due to an IT glitch, the removal of which would take until October 31. However, the Polish Financial Supervision Authority did not wait until this date, and on October 2, it withdrew the authorization to provide payment services by Conotoxia – the operator of Conotoxia.
On October 5, RMF reported that the Poznań prosecutor’s office had initiated an investigation into the Conotoxia case. Its subject will be two notifications sent by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority – the first concerned the Accounting Act in the context of the online currency exchange system, and the second concerned the suspicion of committing a crime of fraud in this online currency exchange system – the spokeswoman of the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Poznań, Prosecutor Anna Marszałek, told PAP.
However, Cinkciarz.pl and Conotoxia are not giving up. The group announced its fight to invalidate the decision of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (attorney Dominika Bielecka, a specialist in fintech law, spoke today on our website about the company’s chances of winning in this case). As you can see, the next step are cases brought by the group companies against banks.
