Local authority inquires about Greensill Millions

The city of Giessen has to tremble about ten million euros, which it has invested as fixed-term deposits with the insolvent Greensill-Bank. The regional council has questions, as does the FDP in the city parliament.

Z The city of Giessen has invested millions of euros in fixed-term deposits with the now insolvent Greensill-Bank and is now worried about its money, as reported. The financial supervisory authority Bafin has declared the compensation case . But that only benefits private investors, not the municipalities. They have no priority and have to queue at the back of the line of believers. Now the regional council as a local authority asks. The authority wants to know details about the fixed-term deposit. She confirmed a corresponding report by the “Gießener Allgemeine”. Regardless of this, the opposition FDP reproaches the magistrate for disregarding the city’s investment guidelines.

In contrast to Monheim in the Rhineland, which has even more money in the fire at GreensillGießen is not a wealthy city. Only at the end of 2019 did the municipality leave the country’s protective umbrella. Overall, Hessen helped the city with around 110 million euros during the protective shield period. “That’s a lot, we also appreciate that, but the money wasn’t a gift either,” emphasized City Hall chief Dietlind Grabe-Bolz ( SPD ) at the time. Against this background, the regional council has started a so-called investigation of the facts.

“Nursing funds management”

The municipal supervisory authority is less concerned with the question of whether the city has behaved correctly with the fixed-term deposit. For such transactions there is “no regulatory approval requirement, so that municipalities do not have to inform the supervisory authorities about their specific financial investments”. According to a spokesman, the regional council has the possible consequences for the city budget for this year in mind. “An assessment of the facts cannot be carried out at the moment,” the authority said in view of the early stage of the investigation.

Stop: Mayor and treasurer Grabe-Bolz has ordered the stop of all fixed-term deposits
Stop: Mayor and treasurer Grabe-Bolz has ordered the stop of all fixed-term deposits :Image: Helmut Fricke

However, it generally points out that in such cases the autonomous management of funds requires the municipalities to inform themselves particularly carefully. “In particular, the credit institution’s rating should be used as a guide.”