Golden Key reinstalling depositors’  confidence by compensation

A compensation payment plan is currently underway to pay depositors of the Golden Key Credit Card Company. This plan was initiated following a request made by representatives of the Golden Key Depositors’ Association and Golden Key All Depositors’ Association, to President Maithripala Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Minister of Finance Ravi Karunanayake, to interfere in this matter and extend the support of the Government in working out a solution.

Measures were taken to resolve the issue by recovering and paying money back to the depositors, and consequently the repayment process has been conducted since 2009. Accordingly the depositors were paid under four phases. A total of Rs. 791 million was paid to 8,052 depositors under phase one, while Rs. 685 million was paid to 7,036 depositors under phase two. Phase three saw the payment of Rs. 574 million to 5,777 depositors, while under phase four, which was concluded last January, Rs. 11 million was distributed among 457 depositors who had made investments of less than Rs. 1 million. However, following the fourth phase, the payment plan was halted due to Supreme Court orders pertaining to the Golden Key Credit Card Company case, and the company faced legal restrictions in liquefying its assets, in order to attain the necessary finances to pay the depositors.

“Due to legal restrictions, after January Golden Key did not have funds to pay the depositors and the depositors too were facing numerous economic hardships. Taking this into account, representatives of the two associations met the President, Prime Minister and Finance Minister and requested them to interfere in the matter and give us a solution. Then under the instructions of the President and the Prime Minister, Minister Ravi Karunanayake got involved. His efforts regarding the solving this issue should be greatly appreciated as he was very keen on resolving this issue immediately,” said Golden Key All Depositors’ Association President and Golden Key Credit Card Company Director Dushanthi Hapugoda.

Accordingly, under Minister Karunanayake’s instructions, the Treasury and the Central Bank will be providing funds worth of Rs. 8.5 billion to the company to settle the payments to depositors. Hence, the payment plan was resumed from 24 July where the rest of the depositors will be paid back in groups. As such a portion of 41% from their total deposit will be paid under this plan. The first group of depositors, which included people who had made investments less than two million are to be paid within one month starting from the date of resumption and the Treasury has provided Rs. 544 million to settle these payments. Depositors who deposited funds from two to Rs. 10 million will be paid in two months and the depositors whose deposits exceeded Rs. 10 million will be paid in a year.

Golden Key Depositors’ Association President and Golden Key Credit Card Company Director Wasantha Gunathilake opined that this solution, which is a significant achievement in terms of getting justice for depositors, was a result of not giving up the fight for justice. “I and Mrs. Hapugoda were appointed to this Board of Directors to represent the depositors and thoughout this seven-year period, our goal has been nothing but to recover the money and help the depositors to get their money back. We are the ones who stood for them and voiced their concerns. Had we given up, the Government would not have gotten involved and none of the depositors would have been able to get their money back.”

They further stated that, up to date, 2.16 billion worth of assets that belonged to the company has been identified and used to recover funds to pay the depositors. They also emphasised that the Government’s involvement in this regard has greatly effected in re-instilling peoples’ confidence about independent private sector finance companies.

“Now people know that the Government and the Central Bank will back them in case of any issue with regards to a finance company. This is a great benefit to boost businesses in this industry. In order to gain more deposits, people must be given that assurance as they invest or deposit their hard-earned money in finance companies expecting a return on investment. We must once again mention the efforts of Minister Ravi Karunanayake and the Ministry of Finance in taking prompt action to resolve this matter. Without their help this success would have never been achieved.”