Bank Liquidator Announces Repayment Plan

The liquidator for the closed Agricultural and Commercial Bank has announced a repayment schedule, designed to help the small depositor, that will begin Mon­day.

Advertisements in local newspapers will tell depositors when to appear at the bank’s main office at No 49, Street 214. Depositors will be scheduled under a system based on their account numbers, and must bring their identity cards and passbooks. Depositors with balances of less than 2 million riel or $500 will receive the full amount of their deposit. De­pos­itors owed more than 2 million riel will receive $500 as a first payment. The first repayment schedule will conclude April 12. Meanwhile, the liquidator is continuing work on an additional repayment schedule for the larger depositors.

“It will be another four or five weeks before we have a better idea of the bank’s total situation,” said Jean Jacques Brutschi, spokes­­man for Donat Branger, government-appointed liquidator.             “We’re very concerned about the fate of the small depositor, and that’s why we’ve taken the step of trying to get as much money as we can to them before the Khmer New Year.”

Commercial was one of 11 banks closed after they failed to meet tougher regulations­­.

Seng Phally, chairman of the Depositors’ Rights Protection Committee, said the threat of demonstrations by his group may have persuaded the liquidator to begin paying off depositors.

He remains skeptical that large depositors will get all their mon­ey. “This [payout] may look good to depositors, but if the national bank was strong, they would be giving all the money now to small and large depositors,” Seng Phally said.

 

 

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