The attention of the Shareholders and Board of uniCredit Ghana Limited has
been drawn to reports in the media about the purported revocation of the
operating license of uniCredit Ghana Limited (Savings and Loans).
The Bank of Ghana (BoG) in its release of 16th August, 2019 listed among the
reasons for the revocation of the license the inability of the institution to meet
the withdrawal demands of its customers due to severe liquidity challenges. It
is instructive to say that the said liquidity challenges were occasioned by the
inability of the institution to access lawfully invested depositors’ funds with
the erstwhile uniBank Ghana Limited (uniBank) which was subsumed under
the Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited (CBG). uniCredit had at all material
times in our engagements with the Regulators drawn their attention to this
difficulty. The efforts of the Board and Management to retrieve the said funds
yielded no positive results.
Again, the BoG further sighted the exposure of uniCredit to uniSecurities as a core reason for the revocation. It must be pointed out that during onsite examination by officials of BoG, the institution was directed to reduce the exposure by getting a collateral to secure the total investments and exposure with uniSecurities. This was duly complied with and the relevant details provided to the Regulator.
The Shareholders, Board and Management have always cooperated with the
Regulator to fashion out a solution to deal with the liquidity challenge and also
other regulatory benchmarks. It was the expectation of the Shareholders,
Board and Management that the solution was going to help deal with
customers’ withdrawal demands and also secure the jobs of 600 direct
employees.
The announcement of the revocation of the license on the 16th August, 2019 therefore came as a surprise especially without any prior information to the shareholders.
The Shareholders and the Board are very much alive to their responsibilities and are engaging with the relevant stakeholders and will in the coming days announce a way forward for all concerned. Meanwhile, we wish to plead with all customers to remain calm while we work through this.
Thank you.
Signed
Shareholders
(uniCredit Ghana Limited)
