This news aggregator site highlights South African labour news from a wide range of internet and print sources. Each posting has a synopsis of the source article, together with a link or reference to the original. Postings cover the range of labour related matters from industrial relations to generalist human resources.
Fin24 reports that according to Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana, the lack of a "credible action plan" to resolve issues at Ubank, despite it being given enough time, and lack of alignment between its board and ownership trustees, accelerated the need for it to be placed under curatorship.
On Wednesday, he told MPs that the SA Reserve Bank's intervention was aimed at saving the troubled bank, not closing it down. On Monday, Reserve Bank governor Lesetja Kganyago announced that Ubank had been put under curatorship, as its the capital adequacy ratio had dipped to 3%, down from 23% in 2020. The ratio is below the minimum regulatory requirement set for the bank. Lack of corporate internal controls also presented risks for its 4.7 million accounts, many of which are for mineworkers and their families. "I have been dealing with the concerns of the Prudential Authority (PA) that Ubank's capital adequacy levels have been deteriorating over the last 18 months, and the inability of the board and its shareholders to adopt and implement an action plan to reverse this decline," Godongwana said. He indicated that meetings had been happening with previous finance ministers, and since March this year "intensified" to weekly meetings, before finally culminating in daily ones over the past week. Ubank, formerly known as Teba Bank, is owned by the Teba Fund Trust, which is administered by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Minerals Council SA (MCSA), with three trustees each. Neither the MCSA nor the NUM has a stake or financial interest in Ubank. The beneficiaries of the trust are the bank's customers. The NUM said on Monday it was "highly shocked and surprised" by the announcement. But the MCSA said it supported the action taken to place Ubank under curatorship
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Khulekani Magubane at Fin24
- Read too, MTN's Mobile Money wallets held by Ubank are in 'ring-fenced' account, at Fin24
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page