Customers of collapsed Fund Management firms appeal to SEC to facilitate payments

Customers whose monies have been locked up in collapsed Fund Management Companies are appealing to the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, to expedite payments based on the progress made with validation so far.

The appeal comes after the Commission’s completion of its work on some Fund Managers who challenged the revocation of their licenses.

The revocation of the licenses of Gold Coast Fund Management and four others were upheld, while the license of Monarch Capital Limited was restored.

But the Secretary of the Coalition of aggrieved customers of the collapsed 53 fund management companies, Joseph Aryeetey, told Citi Business News any further delay in paying them will compound their woes.

“They are expecting payments as soon as it can be started. We already had a meeting with Rev. Ogbaamey Tetteh and his team last week. And we made it clear to him that the issue about the validations they are doing should not delay the payments of customers considering the difficulties we are going through as a result of this situation. We don’t believe that validation of our claims should necessarily delay payment any further. If they really have intentions to pay customers, then we believe this is the time they need to do that,” he said.

Background

The SEC, in November 2019, revoked the licenses of 53 fund management companies for various infractions including their inability to pay clients their investments.

The action was taken pursuant to Section 122 (2) (b) of the Securities Industry Act, 2019 (Act 929) which authorizes SEC to revoke the license of a market operator under some circumstances.

The companies who lost their licenses were said to be managing a customer base of about 56,000 clients whose funds run in excess of GH¢8 billion.

Later, SEC selected branches of Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited (CBG) to receive claims from the clients who have their funds locked up at the affected companies.

The banks were tasked to accept relevant documents for the validation of the investment claims.
Three companies; Firstbanc Financial Services Limited, Apex Capital Limited and Omega Capital Limited have filed cases in court over the revocation of their licenses. The cases are at various stages of completion.

The Director General of the SEC, Rev. Ogbarmey Tetteh, has indicated that the Commission will start payment of monies to customers when it completes the necessary validation processes.