Filanbanco creditors to recover lost funds

Elderly creditors of defunct Ecuadorian bank Filanbanco are set to recover lost funds with the refund of monies to begin Wednesday, local daily El Telegrafo reported. The nationwide recovery program will incorporate elderly creditors with deposits held in the defunct bank not exceeding US$20,000, the paper said. Authorities intervened Filanbanco, one of Ecuador's largest banks, during the 1998-1999 financial crisis and ran the loss-making operation until the bank's closure on July 17, 2001. Three firms - Thesis Antares, Gomez Giraldo y Asociados, and Hunton & William American Services - have been awarded a contract to recover US$392mn in bad loans. The contract process was drawn out for several months because of legal problems and requests for more information by interested companies.