The Bank of Zambia has announced that it has taken over the running of Investrust Bank Plc because the ban is now insolvent.
The action is in line with Section 64 of the Banking and Financial Services Act No. 7 of 2017.
In a statement, the Central Bank says the possession of the bank from April 2nd 2024 has been necessitated by its insolvency.
“The Bank of Zambia has had numerous engagements with the shareholders to recapitalise the bank. Unfortunately, the shareholders have been unable to resolve the insolvency. Under the circumstances, the Bank of Zambia has had to exercise its authority under the law to safeguard financial stability and the interests of the public,” the statement read.
The Bank of Zambia said it is also working with key stakeholders, including the Government, on mechanisms for depositors not to lose any of their money.
“Therefore, depositors are hereby urged to remain calm as implementation of the resolution mechanisms are being worked upon.”
“An announcement to this effect will be made as soon as the arrangements are finalised. During the possession period, the Bank of Zambia shall, in accordance with the law, prepare a statement of affairs of the bank and take any other action deemed necessary.”
It said, “the purpose of the statement of affairs is to establish the full extent of the insolvency of the bank and serve as a basis for the full resolution of the matter.”
Musokotwane said Debt restructuring is just on paper otherwise in reality things will get worse…first casualty…investrust bank
Says you the arm chair critic with nothing to offer to mother Zambia except mock those working hard to ease the burden brought about by your heartless PF borrowers. Those wasted borrowed billions would have built us another dam to stop this load shedding.
@ China
Nothing to offer to mother Zambia???…i wish you knew who Annonymous is….
Zambians are funny,
Last week a friend text me, ” send me $50, economy is tough here because of DEBT RESTRUCTURING”.
This week new word is: INSOLVENT.
I ve never heard of Investrust Bank When I left Zambia in the 90s they were non-existent but how did customer get sold to depositing in a bank with no assets? How did BOZ give them the licence? Like Mahtani? Any gold deposited?
Government should also prioritise the jobs loses and force the shareholders to compensate employees.This was a local bank employing thousands of people and every effort to save it should have been taken. The management should be investigated.
This all comes down to mismanagement and loans to the undeserving
Its happened before and will happen again
This is what happens when you apply bandaid on a wound that needs surgery and stitches….bandaid is temporary and it does the job just for a very short period of time but underneath the bandaid…the wound is getting worse
Zambians like borrowing money but they don’t like paying back….and how do you expect banks to survive……and more banks will soon go down the same route…either become insolvent or merge with other Banks….just like Finance Bank..BancABC…Access Bank….intermarket Bank etc
@Anonymous, What do you expect from a common Zambian that has its president celebrates debt restructuring as opposed to debt repayment.
Some of you seem not to understand……
The GRZ of HH has prioritised a strong economy over exorbitant debt repayments……
Paying the debt is easier with a strong economy, not now while we have a weak economy…….
Hence the need to renegotiate and reschedule the repayments…….
It is rescheduling, not cancelling. We still need to pay, but at better rates
They borrowed heavily.
They failed to pay back
HH fights to renegotiate and reschedule the repayments
They are sad because they don’t want a strong economy
They don’t want free education
They don’t want CDF
tu pf, corrupt,bitter, tribal ,Jealousy, dull, nincompoops.
@KCI
Just check the statement from Finance Minister….the Finance Minister knows that debt restructuring wont do any good but he is being controlled by the Supreme leader Almighty Ayatollah Hakainde Hichilema…HH is just playing Politics….and if Musokotwane keeps on telling Zambians that Debt restructuring is just a bandaid and it wont help Zambia…HH will fire him….HH wants every Minister to lie and kiss ass…he fired Barry because he wasn’t lying or kissing ass
………
Musokotwane was telling people from your gang , who………
are expecting free handouts when they hear debt restructuring……….
The problem here is that we moved from manufacturing and agriculture economy to retail, this is where the MMD got it wrong. AS long as we keep on with this type of economy, we are heading for a wrong direction in perpetuity. What we are doing is simply shifting all the jobs to the countries we import those merchandise.
Remember in UNIP we had Tip top, tariono , Dunlop tyres, lenco buses, FIATE and Land rover factories all these were employing graduates from colleges and unuversities.
@ Spaka
You should be preaching that to your fellow praise singers Lumbani Madoda because they’re mistaking “debt restructuring ” with ” debt cancelation ” ……and your Uncle HH is making it look like its ” debt cancelation” just a way of confusing his gullible followers….and of course 2026 is fast approaching better start confusing Lumbani madoda now
…..
2026 ,It’s a done deal…….
Forwardee 2031……..
You a and your gang borrowed kaloba from the streets and you’re wishing the government had attained debt cancellation, who thinks like that? That money belonged to pensioners in London and New York and you think they should cancel the debt.
You can say what you want, at least we have creditors that have seen our plight.
President Sata refused to get any more loans and he became PF enemy and Lungu followed the advice of his chief apostle. Lungu destroyed PF and all those following him are heading towards self destruction.
Mutu gati aoneke munga nichipalagondo, ugamukonkeleshe bwangi. uzaluba gila lobapano.
Lets all support our government in place. Economic war is for all Zambia.
HH Forward for National Revery
You can say what you want, at least we have creditors that have seen our plight.
President Sata refused to get any more loans and he became PF enemy and Lungu followed the advice of his chief apostle. Lungu destroyed PF and all those following him are heading towards self destruction.
Mutu gati aoneke munga nichipalagondo, ugamukonkeleshe bwangi. uzaluba gila lobapano.
Lets all support our government in place. Economic war is for all Zambia.
HH Forward for National Recovery
I agree Lungu is the chief destroyer of PF-with his wife. I wish Guy Scott had taken over
I’m not supposed. There’s a woman manager who keeps on hounding out young graduates from the bank. These young men and women have studied modern banking which could have helped avoid this status.
From which university? Junk status UNZA. They closure of Investrust has nothing to do with the now unemployed workers but the IMF puppets in government. This is just the beginning of the Armageddon. Lots of banks, companies, small business are going to close just like the last time we took the IMF pill during FTJ and privatization. Those of us who have lived long enough still remember what “good things will come out” for closing Zambia Airways and all the Industries that were poorly evaluated by HH for pocket change. We remember Meridian BIO Bank and how much death it caused on people. We remember ZCCM.
This government has a terrible record. In a very short time load shedding starting in March, very high Cholera deaths, high deaths in Chingola mines, one dead bank less than three years in government, the highest cost of living in the history of Zambia and anticipated hunger across the country. One will wonder what is going to happen next. Personally, I am no longer paying for the 2.8million unemployed junkies who come asking for money from me for the mistake they made for putting brainless puppets in government. The 2.8m needs to go ask for CDF from government and not my hard earned over taxed money.
Yeah-And the drought is because they stopped marking National Day of prayer. The cabinet if you look at them are just muppets with no original ideas. It looks like whatever the chairman says goes.
These are lessons that in future we should NEVER vote for people who look like EDGER CHIPAMESO MUTIMA FULL of waluwalu.
A Warder was once asked how a thief look like. Now Zambians have seen how a thief look like. he looks like waluwelu.
Zambians always prioritise foreigners over their own people. This bank should have not been allowed to go under. Instead, recapitalise and put it under new management. These local banks should be the catalyst to drive local economies by distributing wealth within the country. When foreign bank loan out money, that debt stock leaves Zambia and comes back in the form of IMF conditions. We are quick to shoot ourselves in the foot but the long term consequences are that Zambia will lose it’s assets using the back door. GRZ should have stepped in to recap this bank just the same way European governments kept their banks afloat during the 2008 recession.
This was the only local indigenous bank with zambian shareholders. This proved zambians can’t run anything.
This is called self hate, have you ever heard of Royal Bank of Scotland? Lloyds TSB or Barclays? These banks were bailed out by the tax payer in 2008 and they are not Zambian so what’s your problem? These things happen but its how you deal with then that matters.
@Future Zed and KCI
Just be careful otherwise Spaka will start insulting you for talking sense…..Spaka doesn’t like Patriotic Zambians…
Don’t worry, he will contradict himself. You just need to go back to 2008 and see his comments.
why cant the govt bail it out like we see happening in the devloped countries like the USA.
to bail it out management has to change not being run as a kinder garden bank, hiring without interviews, different salaries yet same position …shut it down
This investrust should have died many years ago. It was mismanaged. RB forced Zccm-ih to buy majority shares in this loss making bank to keep it afloat. KK despite his good intentions left a terrible mindset among Zambians. We expect the government to deliver a bag of maize meal into our homes whilst subsiding everyloss making parastatal. Where will the money come from? And we keep on blaming each successive President for the lack of mealie meal. We vote him out and bring in another president hoping for free mealie. Silly, immature, spoilt brats. I for one would call for finding and prosecuting the people behind the mismanagement of the bank. Put the culprits to death by firing squad.
All of you who shouting from the rooftops blaming the government, why don’t you all speak about the dishonest Fred Mmembe who got loans from this bank of $350,000 and never paid it back.
Don’t worry there will be the names of lots of opposition politicians involved in this scandal will soon come.
Come on LT, print the story
The answer is simple, what did Fred use to secure that loan? When you take out a loan, are you given the money without collateral?
And i have always said that all Politicians are conmen…Fred Mmembe and Nawakwi have been mentioned….and also if you follow the paper trail carefully…HH’s name is being mentioned…i know Margaret Mwanakatwe also is being mentioned….Politicians are just there to put money in their pockets…we had LIMA Bank…DBZ….Finance Bank…Meridian Bank….intermarket Bank….BancABC….all went down due to corruption and theft by our own Politicians…..and the Bank Managers involving themselves in illegal transactions with Politicians
Anonymous, Ayatolla, Indepent Observer, one of the few things we are doing on this platform, is to fight people with boils on their assses. As a philantropist, I would urge you to contact me via my whatsapp number +14705584030. I will not endanger lives of people I help from all the ten provinces. I bow brothers and sister. And yes I am half Tonga ila Lenje as a northerner. Tired of this cho chise when people are now resorting to eating grass.
Hope they know what they are doing