Collapse of fund management companies --Registrar General to hold virtual meeting for creditors

The Registrar General’s Department is set to hold its first virtual meetings for creditors of the 53 collapsed fund management companies.

The meetings are scheduled from September 7 to 11.

A notice published by the Registrar’s department, read links to the meetings would be delivered to all affected creditors via text message before September 4.

The Securities and exchange Commission, acting in accordance with section 122 (2) (b) of the Securities Industry Act 2016, (Act 929) revoked the licenses of 53 asset management companies.

Pursuant to applications by the Registrar of Companies, the High Court, Commercial Division presided over by Her Ladyship Justice A. Mensah Homlah ordered the official winding up of the affected companies.

The meetings are therefore in line with processes to official wind up these companies.

No customer will be left out

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has assured that no customer will be excluded from the government’s bailout package for persons whose funds have been locked-up in the 53 defunct fund management companies since November 2019.

In a statement issued a day after three members of the Coalition of Aggrieved Customers of the collapsed 53 Fund Management Companies were arrested for leading a protest against the exclusion of members of Blackshield Capital Limited from the government’s proposed bailout packages, the SEC said that protest was ill-informed. The SEC said there is no plan to exclude any group of customers and the roll-out of the government bailout will be done in phases.

Shedding light on an earlier statement which is said was misinterpreted, the SEC assured all "affected clients that the Government bailout package is all-inclusive, provided claims have been validated and liquidation orders secured.

"The SEC reiterates the fact that there is no plan to exclude any group of customers and as indicated in our last press release, the roll-out of the Government bailout will be done in phases,” the SEC statement said.

The SEC further explained that the first phase of the bailout will cover the clients of the twenty-two (22) companies which are currently under "official liquidation per Court orders, based on their validated claims".

The statement also disclosed that processes to commence the payments were likely to commence this September.

"The Official Liquidator will communicate details of the payment process to affected clients starting in September. The second phase would cover clients of the remaining companies after the liquidation orders are secured”.

"The point being made therefore is that receiving Government’s bailout is predicated on completion of validation and securing of liquidation orders. It is, therefore, a question of timing and nothing else".

Arrests

The three members of the Coalition of Aggrieved Customers of the collapsed 53 Fund Management Companies were arrested for leading a protest at the premises of the Finance Ministry.

Members of the group besieged the Ministry of Finance on Tuesday, September 1, 2020, to protest over the exclusion of members of Blackshield Capital Limited from the government’s proposed bailout packages for customers of the defunct fund management companies.

The Public Relations Officer (PRO) for the Accra Regional Police Command, DSP Efia Tenge, explained in an interview on Accra-based radio station, Citi FM, that the leaders were arrested for staging an unlawful protest.

She said, “we heard a group of aggrieved people have besieged the premises of the Ministry of Finance and we saw that they had blocked the entrance of the Ministry preventing access and therefore it behoves on the police to come and ensure that they are dispersed and that is what we have done.”

“We keep on saying that if you want to embark on any form of protest or any form of demonstration, go through what the law requires for all of us under the Public Order Act 1994, Act 491 so if you do not go through this basic requirement then it means that the police will have no other option than to come and disperse the crowd and that is what the police have done,” she explained.

The group took the action on the back of claims that some affected customers would not be part of the government’s bailout package for the sector.