NIB Assures Customers Of Business Continuity —After $90 M Judgment Debt Ruling

 

By:Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh

Email:kankiilu@yahoo.com

The management of National Investment Bank (NIB), a state-owned investment bank has assured its customers that their monies are safe with the bank.

This follows last week ruling by an Accra commercial court for the bank to pay over 90 million dollars as judgment debt to a UK-based Dominion Corporate Trustees Limited.

This is also after the bank failed to pay up for promissory notes worth an amount of 60 million dollars in 2007. Part of the debt could be borne by government which holds majority stake in the bank.

However, in a statement copied to the Business Chronicle, the bank said any information suggesting collapse of the bank and a loss of customers’ monies are totally false.

It added that the ruling has not in any way affected the bank’s business with its customers while reiterating plans to immediately exercise its right to file an appeal against the ruling.

The bank is totally convinced that the verdict of the judge did not reflect the facts that were presented before the Court and therefore believes that the Court of Appeal will uphold its appeal and reverse the orders made by the Commercial Court, the statement signed by the Head, Customer Service and Public Relations, NIB, Jerry Nathaniel Halm, concluded.

But a Senior Lecturer in Banking Law and Practice, Moses Foh-Amoaning, says the bank stands to lose a great deal if the order is executed.

“If you consider that the minimum capital requirement for any bank in Ghana is 60 million cedis, then to have a debt of 90 million dollars on your books – which is one and half time more than the minimum capital required, then that’s pretty dire for the bank itself and the shareholders alike”, he told Joy FM, an Accra-based radio station.

Short URL: http://thechronicle.com.gh/?p=52296