Consolidated Bank Ghana Ltd. has paid out half of the deposits it held on behalf of money managers since being formed from the merger of seven failed lenders last year, removing uncertainty over whether savings would be returned.
The institution has given 500 million cedis ($93 million) back to fund managers, Deputy Managing Director Thairu Ndungu said in an interview in Accra. Holders of another 250 million cedis agreed to keep their savings with the bank at an interest rate of 13% a year, he said.
The remaining money managers haven’t yet been paid out yet because they still have to prove their claims, Ndungu said.
State-owned Consolidated Bank Ghana is now liquid after redeeming almost 5 billion cedis of 9 billion cedis of bonds which were issued by authorities to help close the gap between liabilities and assets.
More than half of the 108 fund managers that had lodged complaints with the Securities and Exchange Commission had their queries resolved, SEC Director-General Daniel Ogbarmey Tetteh said.
The Bank of Ghana ordered lenders to increase their buffers by the end of 2018 in an effort to clean up an industry that was beset with bad loans and capital adequacy breaches. The regulator’s actions triggered panicked withdrawals at the initial stage, affecting fund managers as they could not quickly retrieve funds from affected institutions to meet clients’ withdrawal.
Bloomberg