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fwp successfully represents HYPO NOE Group: court of last instance reverses FMA decree

10/04/2013

Vienna, 04 October 2013. Fellner Wratzfeld & Partner Rechtsanwälte GmbH (fwp) represented HYPO NOE Gruppe Bank AG in proceedings initiated by FMA to impose penalty interest in the amount of € 57.9 million. The Austrian Administrative Court has now reversed the penalty interest decree in favour of the bank.

The decree, which was issued by FMA, the Austrian Financial Market Authority, in 2011, had been based on the assumption that Hypo NOE Gruppe Bank AG (HYPO NOE) had exceeded large exposure limits when granting loans to the “Augustus” special-purpose vehicle.

The Administrative Court has now ruled that “Augustus” was part of the HYPO NOE group of credit institutions and that therefore the large exposure limit provisions under banking regulations had not been breached. The FMA’s decree was reversed as being unlawful in terms of its contents.

In the court proceedings, HYPO NOE was represented by fwp’s banking law team, led by Markus Fellner, with support from the public law team headed by Michael Hecht.

“We are very pleased to have been able achieve such a positive result for our client in the “Augustus” case, a legal dispute which had been going on for years and had been highly important to HYPO NOE”, commented Markus Fellner, partner at Fellner Wratzfeld & Partner.