Nearly R730m has now been clawed back from the wreckage of VBS Mutual Bank, the SARB’s Prudential Authority (PA) said in its latest annual report, according to TimesLIVE.

The figure was confirmed by VBS Mutual Bank liquidator Anoosh Rooplal.

It is almost a third of the about R2.3bn plundered through fraud and theft. Advocate Terry Motau SC’s 148-page report, released in October 2018, blew the lid off the looting, leading to 29 criminal cases, with nine matters currently now before the courts.

VBS Mutual Bank was placed in final liquidation in November 2018.

‘Collection efforts on the loan book are ongoing, with significant progress achieved to date,’ the report states. ‘The current focus is on securing further recoveries for the benefit of the proven creditors.’

Rooplal has already made payments to creditors since taking over the bank’s affairs. In 2022, he paid R159m – amounting to 7c in the rand to proven concurrent creditors. In December last year, he paid R458m, which constitutes 20c in the rand.

Asked when he will make the next payment, Rooplal said that it was an ongoing process, ‘but the significant dividends have been paid’.

The second dividend distribution in December brought the total payments to creditors to R617m, he said at the time.

There is also no court date yet for the liquidation application of Ithala SOC Limited (Ithala Bank), the PA said in its report.

‘The liquidation application is still being ventilated,’ the Reserve Bank clarified on Monday. ‘The matter will only become ripe for hearing after all parties have filed their respective papers. As such, there has been no communication from the court regarding the outcome of the application.’

In January, the PA filed an application for the provisional liquidation of the entity, alleging that it was unlawfully accepting deposits, reports TimesLIVE. Ithala Bank, the Ithala Development Finance Corporation and KZN’s MEC for Economic Development are opposing the matter.

This follows the PA’s appointment of a repayment administrator to help transfer the deposits held by Ithala to a registered bank. 

‘However, the progress was hindered by a lack of interest from registered institutions and co-operation by Ithala,’ the PA says in its report.

Francois Rodgers, the DA MEC for Finance, told Business Times last week that they wanted to interdict the Reserve Bank’s liquidation efforts.

‘We are in a situation where some depositors have hundreds of thousands that they cannot access due to the liquidation, which is wrong,’ he told the paper.

Full TimesLIVE report

See also full Business Day report