Hey bunqers 🌈,

What is bankruptcy/ insolvency?

Bankruptcy is a legal process where an individual or entity declares an inability to repay outstanding debts. Once declared bankrupt/insolvent a curator/insolvency administrator is always appointed by the relevant court to manage your money.

If this happens to you in the Netherlands or Germany, bunq is legally obliged to block all liable monetary accounts which belong to the natural person and/or all liable company/ies.

What’s the difference?

In Germany 🇩🇪

At this point you’re no longer authorized to make use of your bank balances. Your insolvency administrator will manage your money until the legal proceedings are concluded or bunq receives a written directive from the administrator or relevant court to release the accounts affected by the insolvency.

In the Netherlands 🇳🇱

At this point you’re no longer authorized to make use of your bank balances our curator will be the one handling all your money until a court order is announced in the Dutch public bankruptcy register or provided to us by the curator.

What’s next?

Step 1: We’ll let you know

We can be made aware of your bankruptcy or insolvency case if:

we’re contacted by a curatortor an insolvency administrator
information is published in the bankruptcy registry

Once bunq receives all the necessary documentation we will block all available monetary accounts in your name (including unlimited liable company account(s) under your name)

Your account(s) will have to remain blocked until we receive a request to unblock one or all available monetary accounts by the court-appointed curator or insolvency administrator. We’ll immediately inform you about this update via an in-app message. To check your received messages from bunq, you can follow these simple steps:

Tap on your Profile in the top left corner
Click on “See More” under Activity
Check out the messages sent there
The time your account will remain blocked solely depends on the decisions of your curator/insolvency administrator.

Step 2: Seizure

Throughout this whole process, we comply with a variety of requests which your curator or insolvency administrator may have, keeping in mind the limitations of the applicable law.

When the curator or insolvency administrator requests transfer of all available amount in your liable Bank Accounts, we’ll transfer the amounts to the dedicated bank account created for the purpose of resolving your bankruptcy or insolvency case.

Step 3: Unlocking your Bank Accounts

There are two ways to get your account unblocked and released from bankruptcy or insolvency.

A court order from the same court that initially declared the bankruptcy or insolvency now declares that the proceedings have ended and the account(s) can be reactivated.
Your curator or insolvency administrator can contact us with a request to reactivate your account(s) by providing us with the court order.

Can the curator/insolvency administrator request termination of my bunq bank account?

Yes, the curator/insolvency administrator has the legal right to request the permanent termination of your bank account with all available monetary accounts in it, which is a request we’re obliged to comply with.

When will my account be unblocked?

As a third-party, our access to information is limited and is solely based on what is provided by the curator. Therefore, the handling of this matter is subject to the instructions given by the curator.

When will my bankruptcy (in the Netherlands) or insolvency (in Germany) end?

As soon as a judge rules on the release of a particular monetary account or termination of your whole bankruptcy procedure. When that happens, we must receive the written verdict from said curator/insolvency administrator.

How can I appeal?

We've shared the available details about the bankruptcy/ insolvency. For more specific advice and assistance, it would be best to contact your curator/insolvency administrator. They'll be able to provide you with more detailed information.

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