Skip to main content

Guptas Are Said to Tell Bank of Baroda They've Found Alternative

The Gupta family, whose accounts are being closed down by the Bank of Baroda’s South African unit, have told the Indian lender that they’ve found another company willing to offer them banking services, according to a person familiar with the matter.
he Bank of Baroda, which took on the Guptas after South Africa’s four biggest lenders closed their accounts, have given the family’s businesses two extra months to transfer their accounts to the new bank, the person said, declining to name the institution and asking not to be identified because the details are confidential. The family’s businesses have paid back most of their loans from Bank of Baroda, the person said.
Gary Naidoo, a spokesman for the Guptas, didn’t respond to a message on his mobile phone or an email. TNA Media, owned by the family, didn’t immediately respond to emailed questions seeking comment.
The Gupta family, friends of South African President Jacob Zuma and in business with one of his sons, lost their banking relationships after the lenders, including Barclays Africa Group Ltd. and Standard Bank Group Ltd., said they risked falling foul of regulators and the law by continuing to offer services to the family and their companies. 
The Guptas were last year named in a probe by the country’s former graft ombudsman into government-linked bribery and corruption. The ombudsman said her findings weren’t conclusive and instructed Zuma to set up a judicial inquiry. Zuma and the Guptas have denied any wrongdoing.
The Bank of Baroda has significantly wound down activities related to the family, P.S. Jayakumar, chief executive officer of the Indian-based lender, told reporters in Mumbai on Friday. Bank of Baroda has explained to South African regulators that “banking transactions were bona fide,” he said.
The Guptas’ Johannesburg-based newspaper The New Age, and their television station ANN7 told staff on July 25 that Bank of Baroda was closing their accounts and asked the employees to petition the lender, Johannesburg’s Star newspaper reported last month, citing unidentified employees. The bank gave the Guptas one month to move their money to another lender before all accounts were terminated, the Star said.

Loans Repaid

The family’s Oakbay Resources and Energy Ltd., which in July stopped trading its securities on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange after failing to find accredited sponsors and transfer secretaries, repaid 194 million rand ($15 million) of loans to Bank of Baroda by the end of February, the Johannesburg-based company said in an earnings report on June 2.
South Africa has 16 registered banks and 15 registered local branches of foreign banks, according to the annual report of the South African Reserve Bank’s supervision unit. Apart from local lenders, there are registered banks from countries including Pakistan, India, Taiwan, China, Bahrain, France, Germany, the U.K. and the U.S.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

How Blockchain Could Help Tech Giant Cisco Reboot

Cisco is changing. The technology firm best known as the supplier of enterprise computer hardware has seen a slow, steady decline in revenue from some of its core products. As a result of an increasing number technological services being virtualized, and the storage of information moving to the cloud, the $158bn firm has been  restructuring  and exploring new ways to capitalize on connected devices. But amidst this change in identity, it's in identity itself where some of the California-based company's most interesting new experiments are taking place. With a series of early stage blockchain  projects , Cisco is now pushing even deeper into what could end up being much more than a way for employees to prove who they are across subsidiaries. In conversation with CoinDesk, Robert Greenfield IV, Cisco software engineer and executive team lead of the firm's Connected Black Professionals resource group, explained how several blockchain projects have evolv...

Bitcoin in Africa: Insights from the Continent’s Biggest Bitcoin Exchange

Isn’t it absurd that nearly 326 million people representing 80% of the adult population in Africa do not have access to bank accounts? This wretched situation denies countless of people financial freedom in the so-called dark continent. Bureaucratic tenors and economic exclusion inter alia have paved the way for the current phenomenon. Last year a study of 10 African nations with unusual inflationary ratio had South Sudan registering an unimaginable inflation rate of 295 percent. Egypt had the slightest with 12.30 percent. African governments continue to plunder the riches of the African people through Inflation. This makes it considerably insurmountable for individuals to conserve their resources. Moreover, public sector borrowing has crowded out the efficient private sector that can put credit to good use. The IMF estimates that averagely credit to the private sector is estimated at 30 percent of GDP in Sub-Sahara Africa. CCN spoke to Werner van Rooyen, Head of Business Develo...

WANT TO BUY BITCOIN IN SOUTH AFRICA , KENYA, UGANDA, NIGERIA, GHANA OR OTHER COUNTRIES IN AFRICA? SIMPLE.

With the growing awareness around Africa of bitcoin as a crypto-currency, a means of remittance and a creator of  wealth, more and more people in more and more countries are looking to buy it, and asking how and where they can buy it. Purchasing bitcoin is simple. Simply go online and do a search for “Buying and selling bitcoin in South Africa ““Buying and selling bitcoin in Kenya “Buying and selling bitcoin in Uganda ““Buying and selling bitcoin in Nigeria “ or  “Buying and selling bitcoin in Ghana“ – you get the idea.   To help you though:   In South Africa, three of the most common (and trusted) platforms are: www.localbitcoins.com www.luno.com www.bitx.co In Kenya, the most common (and trusted) platforms) are: www.localbitcoins.com www.bitpesa.co whilst other platforms include: www.altcoins.io www.99bitcoins.com In Uganda, the most common (and trusted) platforms) are: www.localbitcoins.com www.bitpesa.co whilst other platforms incl...