VSB liquidator still looking for over 5,000 account holders

VBS Mutual Bank’s liquidator, Anoosh Rooplal, is still looking for 5.530 VBS account holders who have not yet activated their accounts at Nedbank.

So far, a total of 12,220 account holders with balances amounting to R255.8 million had activated their accounts so far.

Qualifying account holders who have not yet claimed their deposits at Nedbank have until 8 July 2021 to do so at any Nedbank branch according to the South African Reserve Bank (SARB).

The minister of finance placed VBS under liquidation in March 2018 and the SARB announced in July 2018 that account holders could have access to their deposits at any Nedbank branch, limited to a maximum guaranteed amount of R100,000 per account.

A total of 17,894 account holders qualified for the repayment through Nedbank branches and the SARB transferred R261 million to Nedbank for these payments.

Rooplal has recently received all creditors’ claims lodged against VBS at the meetings of creditors from the Master of the Court. This includes claims from individual account holders, stokvels and burial societies which exceeded the R100,000 guarantee threshold, as well as claims from corporate entities, municipalities and suppliers.

He will now verify the validity of the claims and ensure that they correlate with the bank records. Individual claims amount to approximately R41.5 million, while 240 claims from burial societies, stokvels and other claims amount to approximately R20.5 million.

“With the receipt of all the creditors’ claims from the Master, we have started with our reconciliation and assessment of these claims. We will now be able to report and communicate more often with the proven creditors in order to keep them updated about the liquidation process,” Rooplal says.

Collections on loans from VBS is continuing, but has been impacted negatively by the Covid-19 pandemic.

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