Have banks ever been looted or seized during wars or periods of unrest?
Banking
Asked by Question Bot11/Oct/20131 answer
1 Answer
F
Faisal Khan
Answered 11/Oct/2013
War is a force majeure event. All normal activities and norms are usually thrown out the window. If rioting and looting is possible during the war, so is going after safety deposit boxes.
During the wars your have mentioned, WW II and the Balkan Wars, banks were indeed looted and deprived of all their belonging - cash, safety deposit boxes were opened and plundered by the 1000s. Printing plates, bearer certificates, cash notes, IOUs, everything was looted. Even insurance claims on these safety deposit boxes was heavily contested.
In the Kuwait-Iraq war, the banks in Kuwait were looted. 1000s of safety deposit boxes were pried opened. Cash, jewelry and other valuables were taken, whilst anything and everything that was paper based, was boxed and shipped to Bagdad (presumably for intelligence gathering purposes).
Luckily for Kuwait, many loyalists took key banking data tapes from the mainframe computers and deleted a lot of banking data (so that it would not fall into Iraqi hands). These tapes were then transported to London, where the accounts were restored and some form of parallel banking ensued. Not much information is available on this, and this too I learned from some of the retired bankers of NBK - National Bank of Kuwait.
Your assets remain, unless some extra-ordinary measure was done by the invading government. Sometimes, it would take legal reversal to have your assets back. It all depends on the surrender document.
During the Rwandan killings, a lot many banks and money changers were looted. Even the printing presses were not spared.
So, in summary, yes, looting, rioting, war scenarios, people both localized and invaders, warring factions, etc. do go after the banks, safety deposit boxes, etc.
During the wars your have mentioned, WW II and the Balkan Wars, banks were indeed looted and deprived of all their belonging - cash, safety deposit boxes were opened and plundered by the 1000s. Printing plates, bearer certificates, cash notes, IOUs, everything was looted. Even insurance claims on these safety deposit boxes was heavily contested.
In the Kuwait-Iraq war, the banks in Kuwait were looted. 1000s of safety deposit boxes were pried opened. Cash, jewelry and other valuables were taken, whilst anything and everything that was paper based, was boxed and shipped to Bagdad (presumably for intelligence gathering purposes).
Luckily for Kuwait, many loyalists took key banking data tapes from the mainframe computers and deleted a lot of banking data (so that it would not fall into Iraqi hands). These tapes were then transported to London, where the accounts were restored and some form of parallel banking ensued. Not much information is available on this, and this too I learned from some of the retired bankers of NBK - National Bank of Kuwait.
Your assets remain, unless some extra-ordinary measure was done by the invading government. Sometimes, it would take legal reversal to have your assets back. It all depends on the surrender document.
During the Rwandan killings, a lot many banks and money changers were looted. Even the printing presses were not spared.
So, in summary, yes, looting, rioting, war scenarios, people both localized and invaders, warring factions, etc. do go after the banks, safety deposit boxes, etc.