More than 6,000 Ålandsbanken customers who invested in real estate funds will need to wait even longer to cash out, according to Ålands Radio.
The news outlet reports that the bank informed customers about the situation on Friday, telling them it would take at least another fiscal quarter before they would be able to access their funds.
One of the thousands of affected investors, Karola Molander, told the news outlet that the bank was now telling dissatisfied customers to contact its complaints department by mail, or to reach out to the Finnish Financial Ombudsman Bureau (Fine).
An Yle News article in November explained that many small-time investors had a rude awakening when they realised that they could not redeem their holdings in almost a dozen real estate funds.
As the housing market slowed, many investors wanted to sell off their shares — but due to sluggish real estate sales, there were not enough funds to honour the customers' redemptions.
While Ålandsbanken investors were the first to be impacted in 2023, tens of thousands of customers at other banks, including OP Bank, were similarly affected.
According to Ålands Radio, Ålandsbanken's fund manager Carola Nilsson, is scheduled to comment about the matter on Ålands Radio later on Monday.
