South Africa’s biggest unsecured loan provider, Capitec, revealed that it closed 2 000 bank accounts linked to Ponzi scheme MMM.
Speaking at its AGM near Stellenbosch, Capitec CEO Gerrie Fourie told Fin24 in an exclusive interview on Friday that the drastic action was taken to protect the bank’s clients.
“The Ponzi scheme MMM had a big impact on us,” he said.
Fourie said that after becoming aware of the scheme, the bank monitored the MMM transactions, before freezing the accounts early in 2016. “We actually closed over 2 000 accounts that (were) involved in the scheme,” he said.
“Some of the clients became extremely violent and we had to bring in security guards.”
Fourie criticised the South African Reserve Bank (Sarb) for not acting faster, after it informed them earlier this year about MMM. “It is important for the regulators, when we inform them of certain things, that they react much quicker, to make certain that people are protected,” he said.
“We reported MMM and it took four or five months before we got an answer,” he said. “We would like to see (Sarb and banks) working together to make certain we protect our clients.”
Source : Fin24