Bank of Baroda to ditch Gupta family
The bank to close the accounts in August, but the controversial family plans to interdict bank
The Bank of Baroda has indicated that it would close the accounts of the controversial Gupta family at the end of August, but the family is said to intend interdicting the bank from doing so.
Four major banks in SA closed the family’s accounts in 2016, with the Bank of China following suit mainly because it viewed the family as politically exposed.
In an affidavit filed in October 2016, former finance minister Pravin Gordhan disclosed that R7bn in "suspicious and unusual transactions" had gone through Gupta-linked accounts and were reported to the Financial Intelligence Centre. Complicating the closure of the Gupta accounts by Baroda is the extent of the loans it has made to the family. The initial closure was meant to take place at the end of March. It has been closing its transactional accounts but the difficulty has been the large loan accounts.Business Day understands that Baroda has written to the family to indicate that it will close its accounts at the end of August. The Star reported on a meeting on Tuesday between staff and management of Gupta-owned media assets The New Age newspaper and ANN7 in which concerned employees said they were informed the accounts would be closed soon. The staff was asked by management at the meeting to sign a petition appealing to the bank to rethink the decision. Management told staff to t...
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