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UPDATE 3-Dutch court gives DSB Bank one day to find buyer

Published 10/15/2009, 01:08 PM
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* Court will declare DSB bankrupt if no buyer found

* DSB takeover by big Dutch banks only possible option-court

* Banks such as ING and Rabobank chose not to buy on Sunday

* SNS says not interested, Fortis sees no change from Sunday

* Dutch FinMin says DSB owner will talk to Dutch banks (Adds Dutch finance minister comment, byline)

By Gilbert Kreijger and Ben Berkowitz

AMSTERDAM, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Dutch-based DSB Bank got a one-day extension from a Dutch court to find a buyer, which said on Thursday a deal with a big Dutch bank was the only credible option for a continuation of the privately-held bank.

DSB collapsed on Monday after a run on the bank cost it more than 600 million euros ($894.2 million) in deposits in 12 days and it was placed under the control of administrators. A government-led plan to rescue it via a consortium of five larger competitors failed on Sunday.

The court said in a statement it would give the bank until 1000 GMT Friday to find a buyer and would declare it bankrupt if no viable deal could be found by then.

DSB itself had not had a chance to talk to the banks -- ING , SNS Reaal, Fortis Bank Nederland, Rabobank and ABN AMRO -- and it has asked to be able to address their concerns, the court said.

"The court now only sees here a possible chance to continue DSB as a whole (and) DSB will be granted the option to do so," the court said.

The five banks decided not to buy DSB on Sunday because of concerns about loan losses and potential claims against DSB on certain insurance products.

DSB owner Dirk Scheringa will talk with Dutch banks on Thursday night, assisted by experts from the Dutch finance ministry, to look at options for the bank's survival, Dutch Finance Minister Wouter Bos told reporters.

Bos declined to name banks but said: "I can never explain to hardworking tax payers I have to invest in a bank which has no healthy prospects. We will see the next few hours whether these prospects exist or not".

A spokeswoman for SNS Reaal said it was not interested in talking to DSB, while a Fortis Bank Nederland spokesman said he was willing to listen to DSB but did not expect a different outcome from Sunday's.

ING, ABN, and Rabobank declined comment.

DSB's administrators, appointed by the court on Monday under emergency regulations at the central bank's request, said on Wednesday there had been potentially interested buyers but they had all withdrawn.

The court said it did not expect any new interested buyers in addition to those which had already expressed interest. (Reporting by Ben Berkowitz, Gilbert Kreijger and Joep Polderman; Editing by David Holmes and Rupert Winchester)

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