The court in Amsterdam has ordered the bank Bunq to pay nearly €315,000 after it granted access to a bankrupt customer’s accounts. The judge ruled that the bank must pay the €314,902.37 the customer withdrew after the bank made a mistake. Bunq must also pay interest starting from 22 February 2022 and legal costs of over €8,400.
The customer was declared bankrupt in December 2018. At that time, he had eight accounts with Bunq. In March 2019, the bankruptcy trustee (curator) asked the bank to unblock just one of these accounts. However, Bunq unblocked every account instead. This allowed the customer to use all his old accounts and even open new ones.
The customer then received payments into these accounts without the trustee knowing. He quickly withdrew the money or sent it to other accounts. Bunq argued that the trustee was to blame for the situation, but the judge disagreed. The court ruled that the bank should not have opened all the accounts. As a result, the later payments and withdrawals were unauthorised.
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