-refunds underway
With refunds being paid out to over 3,000 Globe Trust depositors on register as small clients, many multiple account holders remain worried about recovering their money, including some who have found that there are no records of their savings.
Globe Trust liquidators’ Nizam Ali and Company are currently paying out refunds to small clients. Initially, the traffic was slow but since the start of the week depositors have started showing up and information has also been forthcoming that some are now deceased.
Nizam Ali, who was appointed liquidator, has said that around $45 million dollars has been made available for the payouts following a court ruling by Chief Justice (ag) Ian Chang last month. On register are 3050 persons classified as small depositors.
Speaking with Stabroek News on Wednesday, depositor Deon Abrams said he was part of a group, the Commonwealth Youth Credit Initiative, which was encouraged to open a savings account with Globe Trust. He said the initiative was aimed at offering loans to young people. Additionally, he said they opened individual accounts with the company.
Abrams said he has waited long for word on what was happening with Globe
Trust following its collapse, noting that there was talk of the court hearing dragging on. “Somehow I get the feeling that Clico had to happen before we really got a positive response,” he said. He called the situation unfortunate but said it was a good step that small depositors were being refunded. “I hope that the other depositors with large accounts would also get their money back,” he added. Abrams said while he had a small amount in his personal account, he had no idea how much he was going to get back.
Delillth Boyce, an overseas-based Guyanese, said she was with Globe Trust for over 15 years and had opened two accounts during that period. She recalled coming home periodically and checking in with Globe Trust and according to her, “everything seemed fine.” Boyce said she had no idea anything was wrong until the news of the collapse reached her.
She questioned what role the Bank of Guyana was playing, whether supervisory or otherwise, adding that the company just went under. Boyce said she was informed that “at some point” some people might be refunded and she happened to be in the country when a letter arrived for her last week.
Boyce was happy to receive the small savings she had in one of the accounts but pointed out that her second account had close to half a million dollars saved. “I’m likely to only receive a percentage from that money when they decide to pay out on those accounts,” she said with an upbeat attitude, adding that it is still something.
Boyce also summed up the Globe Trust collapse as “a situation that went out of control” and she argued that government did not act swiftly to protect account holders. She said some of the poor people residing here who had savings have suffered. She said it is people’s hard earned money which went down with the company.
Evette Fraser, another account holder, said she has two accounts with Globe Trust and she was not happy with the news that her account with the larger savings was being ignored, but was still relieved to receive the small amount. She said that she is currently not working.
Account holder Avil Murray was not too happy when a letter reached her
last week because it only addressed the joint savings account she shared with her husband; the family had three accounts at Globe Trust. Murray said she had opened two accounts for her children, now 25 years, but they have not been found in the records.
Murray said the liquidators could not say what happened to the two accounts, which both had savings under $100,000 and were categorized among the small depositors. She said those savings have been wiped clean from the system. She said the family had put away the money for the children and today “there is nothing there to show we were saving for them.”
The liquidators have checked the records passed on to them and Murray’s children are nowhere on the list of small depositors. There are reports that several other families with multiple accounts have had similar problems.
For many Globe Trust depositors, a savings account meant financial security so when the company collapsed they felt vulnerable. One depositor said she felt “bare and duped” and after many years she is still angry. But she also pointed out that her anger “changes nothing.” She requested anonymity during an interview, saying that she is simply one in many “faces of Globe Trust.”
It has been so long since the bank has been in operation that depositors have forgotten their balances; many are just happy to collect whatever is there.
