A real “bank run”: everyone rushing to the ATM to withdraw their cash. It happened in Latvia, and the reason for the haste of so many citizens who created very long queues at the counters was just a very trivial (and unfounded) tweet. That is, a message posted on Twitter, which many must have read, immediately worrying about their accounts.
Rumors had circulated on Twitter that Swedbank, the largest bank active in the country, and other Swedish banks, would face difficulties. And immediately, in a few hours, over 10 savers withdrew about 10 million lats (14,3 million euros), ten times more than usual. As communicated by Maris Mancinskis, head of Swedbank in Latvia, by dawn on Monday 130 of the 300 ATMs had sold out.
Meanwhile, Swedbank immediately denied any doubts about its stability, while the body that supervises the Latvian banking sector declared that "the rumors are groundless, Swedbank is one of the most solid banks in Europe" and that "investigators have already started investigations" for insider trading on the rumors spread on the Web.
