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General News of Friday, May 24, 2019
Source: Kingsley Adomako
2019-05-24
Founder of uniBank, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor
The High Court judge presiding over the case in which the owners of UniBank dispute the revocation of the bank's license ordered the opening of an arbitration proceeding aimed at determine whether the decision to sequestrate the bank was against the law.
Judge Jennifer Abena Dadzie appointed an arbitrator, former Supreme Court judge, Prof. Date-Bah, to preside over the case, crucial decision in favor of the owners of the bank, after the receiver had tried to get their application struck by the court.
The owners of the bank, which was one of five banks merged by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) into Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited, are challenging the revocation of the uniBank license, which they have qualified as illegal.
This decision of the judge is the latest in a series of crucial decisions for bank owners after a court order was issued to join the Attorney General in the original case.
The receiver, Mr. Amanor Dodoo, had previously filed a petition asking the court to dismiss the counterclaim of the bank's owner's attorney, Yaw Oppong, for the reinstatement of the license, claiming that she was "frivolous" and "unfounded".
He also argued that the appropriate forum for dealing with license revocation issues under Bill 930 is an arbitration forum and not an ordinary litigation.
The lawyer of the owners of the bank, however, opposed this badertion, saying that even if arbitration was the right forum to address their concerns, this did not justify the filing of the case.
The judge accepted this argument of the lawyer, recognizing that the arbitration did not prevent the jurisdiction of the commercial court in the matter.
"If the law admits a preference for the arbitration procedure, any proceedings before the court should be suspended pending the decision of the arbitration procedure upon request …", a- she declared.
The judge pointed out that the arbitration issues fell within the scope of Article 141 of Law 930 and included the question of the revocation of the UniBank license mentioned in the counter-claim.
The decision added that "in such cases, the authorities are clear; the court suspends proceedings relating to matters under Law 930 while the parties attempt to resolve these issues through arbitration. "
The judge suspended the proceedings before the commercial court pending the decision of the arbitrator.
Revocation of license
BoG Governor Dr. Ernest Addison announced the consolidation of uniBank with other banks on August 1, 2018, indicating that, according to information provided by the official administrator, KPMG baderted that uniBank was insolvent on the balance sheet.
"Among other things, the bank's interest income and other sources of revenue are insufficient to cover the cost of funds related to the underlying borrowings and liabilities, as well as overhead costs of approximately Gc 0.31 billion. per year."
These claims, however, were disputed by the owners of the bank.
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