In addition to the eleven companies already involved in purchasing debts from bankrupt banks in recent years, a new player has emerged in the market. ODM Collection from Belgrade, along with ABL Solvent and EOS Matrix, has acquired claims from Universal Bank in bankruptcy. Universal Bank has been in bankruptcy for over a decade since February 3, 2014.
As of April 15 this year, the bank’s funds amounted to 371,779,167.13 dinars, as announced by the Deposit Insurance Agency, acting as the bankruptcy administrator of bankrupt banks. The majority of this amount, 350 million dinars, is in time deposits in three banks: Intesa, Poštanska štedionica, and OTP bank.
A portion of the funds, 109.5 million dinars, is reserved for paying creditors according to previous distributions. Additionally, 72.9 million dinars are earmarked for settling the remaining obligations of creditors of the first payment order as per certain decisions from 2020 and 2021, while 36.55 million dinars are allocated for creditors in the fourth payment order.
The agency notes that some debtors whose debts to the bank were sold to new owners continued to make payments to Universal Bank’s account in bankruptcy. As these funds now belong to debt collection companies, they must be separated from the bankruptcy estate and paid to the new owners of the debts.
The amount of reserved funds for these companies, as of April 15, 2024, totals RSD 25,465,840.95, with ABL Solvent and ODM Collection being the recipients.
In recent years, eleven companies, including EOS Matrix, ABL Solvent, and others, purchased debts from the Deposit Insurance Agency. Most of the debtors on the list are now under the new creditor, ABL Solvent from Belgrade.
Creditors of bankrupt banks are placed in payment rows, with lower-order creditors settled only after higher-order ones. The claims of creditors are determined at the examination hearing and are paid according to priority orders.
The Board of Creditors of the bankrupt Univerzal Bank has notified all creditors of the bankruptcy process and provided details for reviewing and making objections to the proposed division of payments. The draft decision for partial division is available for inspection at the Commercial Court in Belgrade and has been published on various platforms for creditor notification.
