Housing corporation Vestia from Rotterdam is demanding millions from the French banks Société Générale and BNP Paribas because of the billion dollar debacle with interest rate derivatives in 2012. The affair, in which Vestia insured itself for a lot of money against rising interest rates, almost led to the corporation’s bankruptcy. Vestia had already started legal proceedings against other banks earlier.
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Vestia says that Société Générale would have bribed the former cash manager of the Marcel de V. corporation to get him to conclude controversial derivatives contracts. In addition, according to Vestia, the bank could have known that by law the housing association was not allowed to engage in investment constructions at all. BNP Paribas is also directly or indirectly responsible for the damage, Vestia says without going into details.
Vestia got into financial difficulties eight years ago when interest rates did not rise, against which the corporation had insured, but fell. Other housing corporations had to step in to keep the largest corporation in the Netherlands afloat. The affair resulted in damage of more than 2.5 billion euros. Vestia’s cash manager and a financial advisor were sentenced to prison in 2018.
Vestia previously started business against ABN Amro and Deutsche Bank because of their share in the derivatives debacle. That led to settlements at the time.
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