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From: as on 14 Feb 2010 11:06
Time Bank Seeks Gono�s Help

http://www.thestandard.co.zw/

Saturday, 13 February 2010 12:52

DIRECTORS of Time Bank have sought intervention of Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
(RBZ) governor Gideon Gono to help them re-open the institution.
They accuse the banks� registrar of frustrating their efforts to re-open the
bank after it successfully challenged the cancellation of its licence.

Time Bank was placed under curatorship in 2004 and had its licence cancelled
by banks� registrar Norman Mataruka in 2006.

The Administrative Court then gave the bank a life-line by validating its
licence last August.
In a February 5 letter to Gono Time Bank alleged that Mataruka is
frustrating the implementation of Gono�s directives for the bank to re-open.

�It is sad that close to four months down the road none of the things that
you asked Mr Mataruka to do has been done, yet on our side as Time Bank, we
have prepared and presented a time-framed business plan, which unfortunately
Mr Mataruka literally threw out, without taking into account your
directive,� wrote Takura Tande, Time Bank�s managing director.

�Our understanding, Mr Governor, was that we mutually chose to avoid
wrangles at the courts, by recognising the already existing court order
which validated Time Bank�s licence.�

Tande said RBZ had taken a decision of constructive reconciliation so that
the sector moves as a team but said all the �this spirit is being frustrated
day in day out by your Mr Mataruka, who now seems to be taking a mysterious
personal line of attack on Time Bank�.

Tande proposed that RBZ allows Time Bank �to continue carrying out limited
banking services whilst the ongoing delicate negotiations with our new
partners are concluded to beef up the bank�s capital base�.
�In the spirit of progressive reconciliation, we are also appealing that you
formally present those commitments of support that you gave us verbally in
respect of moratorium on statutory reserve payments and a grace period on
capitalisation,� Tande wrote.

This month the bank said it was offering personal loans to civil servants in
preparation for full banking services once they had resolved their matters
with the regulator.

Tande told Gono that they had advised the registrar about their intended
banking services before flighting adverts in newspapers.

Tande was unavailable for comment.

Contacted for comment, Munyaradzi Kereke, Gono�s advisor said: �We are
having very cordial and progressive discussions with the relevant
stakeholders of Time Bank.

�However, it would be ill-advised for the regulator to pre-empt those
discussions in public.�

The development at Time Bank is a serious blow on RBZ�s efforts to make
peace with players in the banking sector.

RBZ has said that Zimbabwe Allied Banking Group (ZABG) will be returned to
its previous owners.
ZABG is a merger of three failed banks: Trust, Royal and Barbican.

Last year, Time Bank successfully applied for a restoration of its operating
licence at the Administrative Court.

In his landmark ruling last August, AC president Herbert Mandeya criticised
then Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa�s decision to support Mataruka in
de�registering Time Bank without giving its owners ample time to respond to
the allegations.

The court ruled that the registrar had failed to comply with the Banking Act
which says that cancellation of a licence cannot be effected until the
period within which an appeal may be lodged has elapsed or unless the
banking institution had consented to its cancellation.

�Having notified the curator (Tinashe Rwodzi) on May17, 2006 of his
(Mataruka) intention to cancel Time Bank�s registration, the registrar
should have, in accordance with section 14 (3)(a)(i), waited for 30 days �
the period within which an appeal may be lodged with the minister in terms
of section 73 (2)(a) � before canceling Time Bank�s registration.

�Instead, the registrar cancelled Time Bank�s registration after a mere two
days,� the judge said.

The court said that �had the minister (respondent) properly applied his mind
to what the registrar did against the statutory requirements set out in
sections 14(1), (2) and (3) of the Banking Act� he would not have confirmed
what the registrar did�.

BY OUR STAFF

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