At long last, light has shone at the end of the tunnel, as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) gives assurance to aggrieved customers of collapsed institutions to start payment of locked-up investments from next month.

The Commission is expected to pay a total of 98,820 claims valued at GH¢10.83 billion and this will cover 22 firms that it has been able to validate claims of depositors.

Contained in a statement released the Commission, it said “Out of the 50 companies whose licences remain revoked, three did not have any claims filed against them, leaving 47 companies against whom claims were filed by affected clients.

“As at 26th August 2020, a total of 98,820 claims valued at ¢10.83 billion have been received. The Commission has full access to the records of 40 of these companies, partial access to one company and no access to the remaining six companies.”

The release as reported indicated that validation of the claims filed by the clients of the 40 collapsed financial institutions “where we have full access to their records has been completed.”

It explained that Blackshield Capital Management Limited initially failed to assist in locating the server for validation of the remaining 97% of claims until the intervention of law enforcement agencies.

The Commission said it had partial access to records from Blackshield Capital Management Limited (formerly Gold Coast Fund Management Limited) as the company provided Excel data representing about 3% of claims filed by their clients.

The claims filed against Blackshield Capital Management Limited totalled 82,204 and valued at ¢4.65 billion.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), acting in accordance with Section 122 (2) (b) of the Securities Industry Act 2016, (Act 929) (SIA) revoked the licenses of fifty-three (53) Fund Management Companies (FMCs) on 8th November 2019, due to their inability to return clients’ funds totaling GHC 8 billion, and significant breaches of applicable rules that created risks to financial stability.

“The enforcement action taken by the SEC forms part of a general exercise to clean-up the financial sector,” it added.

By Akutu Dede Adimer