Who Owns VBS Mutual Bank
South African mutual bank VBS Mutual Bank was established in 1982 as Venda Building Society. In 1992, it became a mutual bank, and by 2016, it had about 30,000 depositors and R800 million in total deposits.
The bank had intended to launch on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in 2017, but it filed for bankruptcy before that could happen. It was deemed insolvent and bankrupt in 2018 and placed under curatorship, with around R2 billion being stolen from South African individuals and taxpayers.
The bank’s failure severely harmed the Limpopo Province’s funeral business because the bank was unable to fulfill its obligations to insurance companies and burial societies. In the Limpopo Province, it also had a disastrous effect on the stokvel and saving societies that were owned by the underprivileged, primarily black South Africans.
The national government declared in October 2018 that it would not assist South African municipalities that had irregularly deposited R1.57 billion with the bank before to its failure. It was discovered that the bank had R372 million in negative equity when it failed.
Eight individuals connected to VBS and the bank’s auditor KPMG were charged in June 2020 on 47 counts of theft, fraud, corruption, and breaking the Prevention of Organized Crime Act by the NPA. Three more people accused of fraud were detained by the Hawks, South African Police Services, on November 16, 2021 as part of ongoing investigations.
The bank’s liquidators sued KPMG, their auditor, in February 2021 for 863.5 million rand in relation to KPMG’s audit opinion of the now-defunct Bank. The Public Investment Corporation (PIC), the largest asset manager in South Africa, sued KPMG in July 2021 for the 144 million rand it lost when the VBS Mutual Bank failed as a result of fraud.
Who Owns VBS Mutual Bank
The Dyambeu Investments, which controlled 26% of the bank’s largest shares and was owned by the Venda Royal family, was the largest stakeholder in VBS Bank. Thus, the Venda Royal family owned VBS Mutual Bank.