After Venezuela Seizes Banesco, Depositors Want Cash and Clarity
- Bank, with 8 million clients, had eluded government control
- Executives’ arrests come as Maduro prepares for re-election
Customers use ATMs at a Banesco Banco Universal CA bank branch in Caracas.
Photographer: Manaure Quintero/BloombergDepositors started lining up outside Banesco Banco Universal’s branches in eastern Caracas early Friday morning, hoping to get cash -- and answers -- after Venezuela’s government seized the nation’s largest privately held bank.
Half a dozen police officers carrying assault weapons stood outside the landmark emerald-glass headquarters of the institution known as Banesco after news of what authorities called a 90-day intervention and arrest warrants for 11 top executives. The government claimed Thursday the bank speculated on the exchange rate and smuggled paper money out of the country, freezing about 1,000 accounts. The bank’s billionaire director, Juan Carlos Escotet, said the government knows about the accounts only because they were properly reported.