Thursday, March 28, 2024

Intermarket Bank customers cry for their money

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Customers line up outside Intermarket banking corporation branch at Farmers house
Customers line up outside Intermarket banking corporation branch at Farmers house

There were emotional scenes at Intermarket Banking Corporation branch at Farmers House in Lusaka on Wednesday a day after the Bank of Zambia closed the commercial bank.

Angry depositors started queening up around 07 Hours in the hope that the bank will open and allow them to make withdrawals and close their accounts.

A check at the Farmers House branch along Cairo Road found a heavy presence of armed police and the ATM machines non-operational.

Some of the affected customers interviewed complained that the Bank of Zambia should have allowed them to close their accounts before shutting down the bank.

Amos Shashi, a farmer from Katuba area complained that he has K500,000 locked in Intermarket Bank which he had planned to use partly for his farming activities in this farming season.

“I had put all my savings here (pointing at the bank’s door) but I am told that BoZ will only tell us the fate of our money after three months, now for me that would be too late because that means I will not do anything at my farm, I will not even pay my workers,” Mr Shashi lamented.

Intermarket’s chief executive, Jon Gudmundsson refused to comment.

On Tuesday, the Bank of Zambia took over Intermarket Banking Corporation citing the bank’s failure to meet financial obligations and seized its assets with immediate effect.

According to an official notice of possession, Bank of Zambia deputy governor for operations Dr Bwalya Ng’andu said the central bank has taken possession of Intermarket after the company failed to meet its obligations.

“Notice is hereby given that pursuant to Section 81 of the Banking and Financial Services Act, Chapter 387 of the Laws of Zambia, the Bank of Zambia has taken possession of Intermarket Banking Corporation Zambia Limited with immediate effect,” read the notice signed by Dr Ng’andu on Monday.
“The action to take possession of Intermarket Banking Corporation Zambia Limited is due to the bank’s insolvency and its inability to meet obligations as they fall due. During this period of possession, the Bank of Zambia shall cause to be prepared a statement of affairs and take any other action it deems fit.”

The central bank’s move to repossess Intermarket follows several other cases of insolvency experienced by other firms within the financial services industry.

In May this year, the central bank also took over the running of three insolvent indigenous financial institutions – Cetzam Financial Services, Commercial Leasing Zambia Limited and Genesis Finance Limited.

At the time, the BoZ stated that the three financial institutions were capital insolvent and their shareholders had failed to carry out recapitalisation and could not propose any plan acceptable to, and enter into an agreement with, the central bank.

Police officers manning entrance to Intermarket
Police officers manning entrance to Intermarket
Customers stranded outside Intermarket banking corporation
Customers stranded outside Intermarket banking corporation

42 COMMENTS

    • PF is broke so people should forget their deposits. What ever amount of money remaining will be grabbed by the PF government to pay salaries and fund Lungu and his PF stooges ‘s travel allowances.

      My advice to people now is that withdraw all your monies from any international banks and keep it in international safe banks like Barclays, stanchart, and citibank.

      Right now in Zambia you are better off keeping your money at home because the same withdrawal restriction rules applied in Zimbabwe will apply to Zambia soon. So your money will be locked up in Banks so that Government can access it at will.

      Zambia under Lungu is a failed state.

      Chagwa must fall.

    • All those affected by this sad development will be paid back their money with profits once UPND takes over from the illegal & incompetent PF bandits of visionless Lungu.
      Its unfortunate that farmers have no choice but fire their workers due to violent PF’s visionless stature. Clear chimwi without nzelu!
      All illegal ministers in PF were found wanting by the Con~Court to pay back the salaries they fraudulently got & give these innocent victims what belongs to them, simple.
      The ACC & Police still sleeping, waiting to be told of what to do, very unproductive & unprofessional, surely its dununa behindhand of mediocrity. Lungu must stop kamwendo munjila, npoofu. Aliye menso PF na Lungu.
      The Skeleton Key
      ~206~

    • The same as the Nation of Zambia.

      Signs of failing Economy.

      Correction: signs of poor management by the incompetent PF thieves in charge of Government.

      Consolation for Intermarket Bank customers – the whole of Zambia will be joining you as soon as the IMF comes in.

    • That is reality KK Eleven, as usual with violent & visionless PF of Lungu it is happening.
      Zambians can remember very well when Lungu said how visionless he was~2014~Dununa reversed! Economy!Load Shedding! Closure of economic & investing companies~privatisation! Zesco, Zamtel & mines will be sweepstakes. IMF swa.Lelo ba PF, poverty~stricken economy ba Lungu~”tonne of bricks”~ heavily fell down upon Mmembes post newspaper. PF ni njala!
      The Skeleton Key
      ~206~

    • The Observer, for sure. The bank was busy fattening PF bandits, now they have found themselves into mwamoneni.
      Its starts with leadership at presidency level, then institutions can follow suit. But now this is a clear case of dununa backwardness. Imagine PF of blind Lungu closed the post which was an employer of thousands Zambians. If only Lungu can stop the global trotting with PF bandits, you don’t expect the economy to recover. Never under PF until the camel passes through the needles eye.
      The Skeleton Key
      ~206~
      Mismanagement of the country’s economy, period.

  1. This is really bad. They were suppose to follow a proper procedure by letting its customers know about this. Yes the bank has gone insolvency but were is the law here? Can the customers also sue the bank!

    • Which procedure are you talking about if Edgar Chakolwa Rungu doesn’t follow them.Just keep on singing dununa regret…

    • @sharon, don’t “laugh me” – wilansekesha! If you look through the littany of liquidation processes there is no “proper procedure”. It is like stopping a leaking tap before it floods a house if the washer and tap switch are not working – you have to do it abruptly!!! Zambia Airways was liquidated over a weekend, Meridien Bank was liquidated with very little warning, ZNOC swayed and buckled without a warning – the list goes on. The Bank Management HAD the knowledge – it was THEIR responsibility to warn their customers.

    • No bank manager will warn customers that their bank is collapsing. That would precipitate an immediate run. Instead the managers always hope that the shareholders will do something or another miracle will happen until PF takes the closure move through BoZa or ZRA (like for the Post)

  2. Dear all,
    This trend of closing banks is likely t0 continue. We expect many more small banks, particularly indigenous ones to close down as they fail to recapitalize the operations. The best one can do is to withdraw all the money from the bank and invest in something else. Keeping money in small banks is very risky at this stage of economic recovery. Remember what happened in the 1990s?

    • Wajimona, you are right, I almost mentioned Investrust Bank in my earlier posting but for some reason I decided to be silent. However, please be warned. When Friday Njovu was kicked out by the curtail, the bank started failing.

    • Wajimona, its already gone. The visionless & violent PF are just mute in pretence of their short legged Donchi Kubeba pathological lies to their style.
      No one knows the time, but Invest Trusted suffocated 3 or so months ago. Real soon it will close too~dununa backwardness unfortunately.
      The Skeleton Key
      ~206~

    • I am also shocked how someone would be so careless to put ZMW500, 000 in a bank like Intermarket, anyway, he did not know that this may happen

    • That will not happen. There’s no depositor insurance in Zambia. Instead the liquidator will be paying “dividends” to depositors over 5 to 10 years as assets are sold and loans recovered.

  3. There is a law that prevents banks from reaching such levels. Where was the Bank of Zambia all this time. I smell a rat. Dununa reverse

  4. Yesterday, I spoke to a senior manager in this bank concerning the BOZ take-over and his comment was that the lousy shareholders interfered in the banks operations and failed to raise funds for re-capitalization.
    It is purely poor business management.

  5. Please can someone help me, i am ready to give you my wife, her sister and daughter in exchange for help.
    I got K90,000 from office safe to deposit in my account so that my bank statement would show a high balance when applying for a loan from Inter Bank. but before the loan could be approved the bank is closed. Please the office needs not know about the missing money from safe.

  6. WHERE IS THE HEAD OF STATE? WHAT DOES HE SAY ABOUT THIS? DOES HE THAT SOME INNOCENT CITIZENS HAVE LOST THEIR SAVINGS?

  7. WHERE IS THE HEAD OF STATE? WHAT DOES HE SAY ABOUT THIS? DOES HE KNOW THAT SOME INNOCENT CITIZENS HAVE LOST THEIR SAVINGS?

    • He says “who cares?” thats your problem, not mine!

      Now, where am I going next? US? China? Or maybe visit my very good friend in North Korea? Do they have 5 star hotels there?

      Lets have a few more Jamesonis while I decide this very important issue.

  8. Dununa Reverse…Edgar Lungu eo twikwite…we told u people that vote wisely, u wouldn’t listen. Malibu yakuilombela. Iwe ka Chagwa Agwa Lungu give them their money, even RB didn’t steal like that.

    • My friend don’t pretend to be ignorant. I am sure you’re learned and you just want to mislead the public for your gain. It won’t work.

  9. The internal logic of Section 81 of the Banking and Financial Services Act, Chapter 387 of the Laws of Zambia, which empowers the Bank of Zambia to take possession of any bank in Zambia due to insolvency and its inability to meet obligations as they fall due, is meant not only to promote a sound business environment, but also, to protect the interests of the members of public (bank customers).

    • This is what certain people don’t understand and instead of insulting government they should be grateful that BoZ has actually saved their savings. The BoZ has to this effect issued a notice to explain what lead to the takeover of this bank.

    • Pray Mr PF, how has BoZa save people’s savings when depositors will not get their money for years to come? A liquidation is not a 3 month salvage exercise.

  10. This is a case of lack of good corporate governance that takes due regard of its customers. This is what happens when right values are not upheld in an organisation or society. This has nothing to do with the Head of State.

  11. Intermarket Bank didn’t uphold good corporate governance and right values. That’s what has led to this situation. other Banks are operating profitably and to the satisfaction of customers, in the same business environment where Inter market has failed.

    • Capital adequacy has nothing to do with a bank operating profitably. PF introduced an increase in capital to K500m for foreign banks and K125m for local banks in 2012. The banks were given 3 years to increase their capital. Since the small banks could not make such profits in such a short period, the only solution was for shareholders to pump in note money. Any Shareholder has to determine whether to put more investment in a failing economy in Zambia or use the money somewhere else. Clearly Intermarket has failed to get a capital injection. But the point is that there is no scientific evidence to support the new capital requirements.

  12. Nkonde Luke,

    I hope u r just pulling a prank. If your story of getting 90K from the office is true, i hope u get arrested & prosecuted. It very obvious u r one of crooks r who creating this toxic environment by lying and declaring false financial information to banks. In most cases people like u borrow and fail to pay back, because u operate above your means. Do not be surprised if u eventually hear that part of this bank’s problems are mostly due non performing loans.

    • I would not put it far from a Bemba thief to do something stoopid like that. After all Sata got away with doing the same with govt money during MMD.

  13. Ideed, Mr. Zamani Boza has a point. Mr. Nkonde Luke if indeed, its true you did that, you need to repent. We are all responsible to help create a better society through our respective dealings in life and business. A better Zambia begins from a better you and me. Our collective decisions as individuals ultimately determines the destiny of the nation. I am praying for you Mr. Nkonde, may God influence your heart and mind and create opportunities to gain money in right ways. Honest is one of the best asset you can ever have in living a fulfilled life.

  14. The Meridian saga displaced my father and caused me to finish grade 12 at 25.
    the repeat now.
    I have also suffered don’t know what will happen to my daughter who sat for grade seven.

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