Golden Key resumes re-payments

A compensation payment scheme is currently under way to pay depositors of the Golden Key Credit Card Company. This follows a request by representatives of the Golden Key Depositors' Association and Golden Key All Depositors' Association, to President Maithripala Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake to intervene in this matter and work out a solution.

The depositors were paid under four phases. Rs. 791 million was paid to 8,052 depositors under phase one, while Rs. 685 million was paid to 7,036 depositors under phase two. Phase three - the payment of Rs. 574 million to 5,777 depositors, while under phase four, which concluded last January, Rs. 11 million was distributed among 457 depositors who had made investments of less than one million rupees.

However, following the fourth phase, payment was halted due to the Supreme Court's order pertaining to the Golden Key Credit Card Company case, and the company faced legal restrictions in liquidating assets to pay the depositors.

"Due to legal restrictions, after January Golden Key did not have funds to pay the depositors, and the depositors too were facing numerous economic hardships. Taking this into account, representatives of the two associations met the President, Prime Minister and Finance Minister and called on them to intervene in the matter," said President, Golden Key All Depositors' Association and Director, Golden Key Credit Card Company, Dushanthi Hapugoda.

The payment plan was resumed on July 24. The Treasury and the Central Bank will provide Rs.8.5 billion to the company to settle payments to depositors.

Hence, depositors will be paid back in groups. Forty-one percent of the deposit will be paid under this plan.

The first group of depositors, which included people who had made investments of less than two million rupees are to be paid within one month starting from the date of resumption and the Treasury has provided Rs. 544 million for these payments.

Depositors who deposited funds between Rs. 2-10 million will be paid in two months and the depositors whose deposits exceeded 10 million rupees will be paid in a year.

President of the Golden Key Depositors' Association and Director of Golden Key Credit Card Company, Wasantha Gunathilake opined that this solution, which is a significant achievement in terms of getting justice for depositors was a result of not giving up the fight.

"Mrs Hapugoda and I were appointed to the Board of Directors to represent the depositors and throughout the past seven years, our goal has been nothing but to help the depositors to get their money back," he said.

"We stood for them and voiced their concerns. Had we given up, the government would not have got involved and none of the depositors would have got even a part of their money," Gunathilake said.

They said that up to date, assets valued at Rs. 2.16 billion that belonged to the company had been identified and liquidated to pay the depositors. They said the Government's involvement has re-instilled people's confidence about finance companies.

"Today, people know that the Government and the Central Bank will back them in case of any issue with regard to a finance company. This will boost business in this industry. To obtain more deposits, people must be given that assurance as they invest their hard-earned money in finance companies expecting a return," he said.