BBVA has reacted to the complaint filed against it in the US Bankruptcy Court by Irving Picard, trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L Madoff Investment Securities, who is claiming $43m from the Spanish bank.
BBVA said it did not invest directly in any of Bernard Madoff's products and highlighted a document filed with the Spanish regulator, the Comision Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV) in December 2008, in which it explained that it did not market any of Madoff's structured products to retail investors. The bank said its exposure to the fraud is limited to having invested in funds that invested in Madoff's products.
The money claimed by the liquidator relates to reimbursements of BBVA's investments in those funds linked to Madoff's products, which the bank claims were executed before the fraud was unveiled.
BBVA claims there was no wrong doing on its part and said it has not received a formal notification of the liquidator's claim.
Picard is trying to recover more than $1bn for distribution to Madoff clients, and has filed multiple claims against a number of structured product providers, including Citibank ($425m), Natixis ($400m), Fortis ($230m), ABN Amro ($270m), Nomura ($35m) and Merrill Lynch ($16m).