There is good news for Saambou depositors: Curator John Louw has decided to allow further interest withdrawals up to a limit of R15 000 from "qualifying" deposits from April 1.
Louw says the payments are "intended to relieve hardship, especially among pensioners and others dependent on this source of income".
Louw also told Personal Finance that a special "hardship" committee consisting of 10 full-time staff is now in place to deal with inquiries and allow partial access to funds where "fully motivated cases warrant financial support". So far, more than 30 000 requests for hardship relief have been received and are being processed.
The following interest payments have been unfrozen:
- Interest that you would have been entitled to withdraw on or before March 31, 2002 had Saambou not been placed under curatorship; and
- Interest on term deposits, which could not have matured by March 31, 2002 on which interest was being released monthly.
"Previous client instructions to Saambou Bank with regard to the payment of interest will remain unchanged," Louw says.
"Interest accrued but not yet due and payable will not be released for withdrawal from April 1, 2002."
Louw says further capital and interest releases will be entirely dependent on the future of the bank.
Saambou Bank was placed under curatorship on February 9 and all accounts were frozen. Since then, Louw has been systematically making funds available to depositors.
Certain depositors have been able to access some of their money based on the balance in their accounts:
- Up to R4 000 can be withdrawn from funds in the following accounts, irrespective of the account balance: Money Manager, S-Card, Carry On, Tempo, Kolskoot, Savings Account and Q Card, as well as the 20Twenty account; and
- Up to R4 000 can be withdrawn from the following accounts, but only if the balance is R4 000 or less: Call accounts (Moneymarket, Group Investment, Wealth Manager and Prime Plus); notice accounts (Dinkum, 32-Day Call, 88-Day Moneymarket); and term accounts (Fixed Deposit, Three-Year Profit Winner, Primelink II, Top-Up, Win Win 2000, Base Rate, Baby Bond, Prime Plus, Optimum Bonus).
Bank customers have also been allowed access to a portion of their interest in certain investments.
Certain depositors have been allowed to withdraw a maximum of R15 000 of the interest due from their accounts from the beginning of March. This special concession applied only to the interest on deposits due on or before February 28 and to term deposits on which interest is paid out monthly, even though the deposit had not matured by February 28.
Any money paid into the bank after 1pm on February 9, when the bank was placed under curatorship, is available without restriction.
- For more information, phone Saambou at 0860 139 555/0860 239 555.