Bank of Baroda can close, High Court rules, in blow to Gupta companies
Judge Ntendeya Mavundla says the bank’s right to trade or not trade supersedes the rights of the companies
The High Court in Pretoria says it cannot compel the Bank of Baroda to go “belly crawling” to Nedbank to ask it to reinstall its relationship just for a group of Gupta-linked companies. Nedbank provides banking facilities to the Bank of Baroda, which is not a clearing bank and cannot participate in the Natio-nal Payments System. Baroda is the only bank left in SA that was providing services to the Gupta-linked companies, but in February the bank announced it planned to close its office in the country, after instructions from its headquarters in India. The decision to move out of SA came after Nedbank terminated its relationship with Baroda. This meant it was impossible for Baroda to provide transactional banking facilities to its customers. On Monday the court dismissed an application by 13 companies to have the Bank of Baroda interdicted from closing their South African operation at the end of March 2018. It is not clear what the Gupta companies will do from April 1 when the relati...
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