KARACHI, July 27: The management of Platinum Commercial Bank Limited has approached the State Bank of Pakistan to obtain a key certificate to use it to get its Nostro account reactivated by the US treasury authorities.

Nostro account means the foreign currency account of the bank opened abroad for settling transactions involving international movement of funds, including exports and imports, etc.

“We have approached our regulators (i.e. the State Bank) to seek a certificate that would establish that Platinum Bank has not been sold out to Pak-Libya Holding Company,” said president of the bank Azizullah Memon.

“This certificate would enable us to prove our point before the US treasury authorities — that their decision to freeze our Nostro account is unlawful.”

Mr Memon made these remarks when asked by Dawn how the bank had reacted to the US decision to freeze its Nostro account because it was going to be sold out to Pak-Libya Holding Company. The US office of foreign assets control (Ofac) had frozen the Nostro account of Platinum Bank after it struck an agreement of sale with Pak-Libya Holding Company late last month. The decision was taken on the ground that Libya continues to be under the US sanctions so the acquisition of any Pakistani bank by a company having share holding of Libya was unacceptable to the US authorities.

The Ofac had frozen the Nostro account of Platinum Bank in the second week of this month and the bank had immediately recorded its protest and demanded the reversal of the decision. “The Ofac has received our representation and duly acknowledged it,” said Memon. “But our legal advisers say we need to submit to Ofac a certificate from the State Bank confirming that the bank is still working under the same banner and under the same management,” he said.

“The decision to freeze our Nostro account before the sale of the bank to Pak-Libya Holding Company was unlawful and unilateral,” said Memon. “I hope the decision would be reversed and our Nostro re-activated once we submit the SBP certificate to Ofac.”

WITHDRAWALS: A source close to Platinum Bank said that foreign currency account holders of the bank withdrew $200,000-$400,000 from the bank on Saturday after they had learnt about freezing of its nostro account. But president of the bank Azizullah Memon said the withdrawal was not so big that it could be linked to the Nostro freezing. “I think the withdrawal was just normal,” he said but candidly admitted that there was slight panic among the bank clients. “I assure all depositors that their money is safe and we are legally bound to pay anybody who wants to withdraw money from the bank,” he said and claimed that the bank had drawn up an exigency plan for the purpose.