SEC appeals for calm

The management of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has urged customers of the collapsed fund management firms to remain calm as they go through the necessary processes to acknowledge and reconcile their claims.

The claims were received from the investors through the designated Consolidated Bank Ghana (CBG) branches across the country.

Mrs Deborah Mawuse Agyemfra, the Deputy Director-General, Legal of SEC, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency said, as part of the processes text messages were being sent to the customers quoting the specific amounts they stated as their claims.

The Commission in November, 2019 revoked the operating licences of 53 investment companies to protect the integrity of the securities market and investors’ interest.

In the same month, it issued a statement directing customers of the collapsed fund management firms to visit CBG branches for the submission of their claims.

She said those having challenges with the amounts or with their personal information were reporting to the SEC and “we are rectifying all these things”.

She, therefore, urged those who had not yet received their text messages not to panic because they would eventually receive them.

“Essentially, the decision to revoke these licences was taken after supervision, monitoring and investor complaints, the SEC had received an unprecedented number of complaints – almost 2000 complaints from investors,” she said.

“We had several engagements to ascertain whether the companies could correct infractions and pay investors requests for funds or not but consistently, we realised that the fund management companies were unable to remedy the infractions and return the investments to these people”.

She said the revocation was in accordance with SEC’s mandate to regulate and protect the growth and development of an efficient, fair and transparent securities market in which investors and the integrity of the market were protected.

Explaining how these monies would be paid, the Deputy Director-General said there were two legs that would take place. The first leg is a discretionary payment that the government has committed to paying to alleviate the pain and frustration investors are facing.

 The amount will be communicated to customers as well as when it would be paid.

She said the discretionary payment was to support investors so the government would determine the support after SEC had provided a validated amount of claims submitted.

 With the second leg, the official liquidator would go through a process to provide additional funds with the proceeds from the realisation of assets of the affected fund management companies.

The Registrar-General was notified of the revocation by SEC and has petitioned the court to be appointed as the official Liquidator for the companies and the process is ongoing.

Mr Emmanuel Ashong-Katai, Head of Policy Research and Information Technology, said SEC was working hard as part of their mandate to protect the investments of the public.

The acknowledgment process, he explained, was to receive feedback from customers on their investments and for the necessary reconciliation.