The reasons why BoG closed down Midlands Savings and Loans
Midland Savings and Loan Company Limited was licensed by the Bank of Ghana to operate as a Savings and Loans Company on October 21, 1996. It commenced full operations on March 13, 1997.
The institution was found to be facing liquidity challenges in January 2017. A subsequent assessment indicated that the institution was undercapitalized and also facing serious liquidity challenges. The Bank of Ghana has since August 2018, engaged the Board and Senior Management on the need to inject additional capital.
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The specific issues that led to the revocation of the institution’s licence included the following:
a. The institution’s Net worth of negative GH¢148.92 million as at end May 2019 indicates that its paid up capital is impaired in violation of Section 28(1) Act 930.
b. The institution’s capital adequacy ratio of negative 311.91% as at end May 2019 is in violation of Section 29(2) of Act 930.
c. The institution failed to conduct due diligence on counter parties resulting in the impairment of some investments. In addition to the impairment of the investments, the persistent operational losses have resulted in an adjusted negative capital adequacy ratio and negative net worth as at August 31, 2018.
d. The institution is over exposed to related parties such as Liberty Asset Management, Liberty DMI Microfinance and Griffin Financial Services continue to be rolled over in spite of the liquidity challenges it faces.
e. The company has consistently breached the minimum cash reserve ratio requirement. Cash reserve requirement as at end May 2019 was 0.23%.
f. The company failed to keep accounting records in a manner that gives an accurate and reliable account of its transactions. As a result, the institution is unable to submit prudential returns regularly and could not provide the various schedules that reconciles with key balance sheet balances such as loans and investments.
g. As a result of the liquidity challenges, the company is unable to provide adequate funds to run the various branches thus rendering the branches inactive.
h. The inability of the company to honour customers’ withdrawal request have resulted in customers resorting the use of their lawyers in filing claims on the institution and complaints to the Bank of Ghana.