Habib Overseas Bank depositors to get refunds of up to R100,000 via FNB

Following discussions held with National Treasury, government has provided a guarantee to the SA Reserve Bank to facilitate the repayment of deposits up to a maximum amount of R100,000 per depositor. Importantly, the payments are not being issued by Habib Overseas Bank but will be paid based on the government guarantee.

Consumers with amounts above R100,000 will retain a deposit with Habib Overseas Bank for their remaining balances. These deposits will remain valid and depositors may receive part or all of their amounts above R100,000 in future, depending on the financial position of Habib Overseas Bank. This is, however, not certain or guaranteed, as the financial position of Habib Overseas Bank is still being assessed. 

First National Bank (FNB) was chosen as the payout institution to facilitate the repayments, based on specific criteria including proximity to depositors, cost structure, speed of execution and the complexity of having multiple types of deposits. 

Also considered was selecting a pay-out institution that specifically provides similar types of products as those that were offered by Habib Overseas Bank to its customers. Depositors will have up to three years within which to claim their funds.

Habib Overseas Bank was placed under curatorship in late March based on governance, compliance and operational failures. The SA Reserve Bank says since then, in-depth investigations and analysis have revealed that the bank’s financial position was significantly worse than initially anticipated. 

This resulted in a moratorium being imposed and the closure of Habib Overseas Bank branches by the curator to enable his team to undertake financial and operational assessments, given the governance, compliance and operational failures.

All Habib Overseas Bank branches will remain closed.

All customers who have loans with Habib Overseas Bank are urged to continue paying their loans as they are still legally obliged to do so. Customers may face penalties and other sanctions if they fail to repay monies owed to Habib Overseas Bank. DM