A court in Croatia has ordered Nova Ljubljanska banka d.d. to pay €600,000 after losing a lawsuit over deposits in Croatia, SeeNews reported, citing Slovenian media.
However, the Slovenian government, which believes the lawsuit violated treaties upheld by both countries, has countered that the lender should refrain from paying the fine and wants the lender to challenge the decision in Croatian and international courts.
The bank had been sued in a case involving Yugoslav-era savings deposits held by NLB customers, which were repaid by Croatian banks after Yugoslavia broke up. Croatia eventually took on the deposits as public debt.
According to an estimate referred to by SeeNews, NLB could be facing a total of €400 million in damages.
The two countries signed an agreement in 2013 that enabled NLB deposit cases to be part of the Yugoslavia succession treaty of 2001.
