BoG to appeal ruling on revocation of UnCredit Ghana’s licence
Information reaching NorvanReports suggests that, the regulator of the banking industry, the Bank of Ghana, has instructed its lawyers to immediately appeal against the decision of the Court of Appeal on 7th July, 2022, which reversed the Bank of Ghana’s decision to revoke the license of UniCredit Ghana Limited.
The Court of Appeals’ ruling in favour of the shareholders of UniCredit Ghana Limited seeking to reverse Bank of Ghana’s decision to revoke the company’s savings and loans licence in 2019, comes after the Human Rights Court upheld the decision of the central bank.
The Human Rights Court in its ruling in a case filed by the shareholders of UniCredit on 18th March 2021, was of the view that the Central Bank followed the relevant law and due process in revoking the licence of Unicredit Ghana Limited, but that was overturned by the Court of Appeal in its latest ruling.
But the Central Bank managers insist that due process was followed, hence instructing their lawyers to immediately file an appeal to the latest ruling which will stay execution of the new ruling.
Information available to NorvanReports suggest that, with the filing of the appeal, the Receiver of Unicredit Ghana Limited will continue to perform his statutory functions while the appeal processes are filed by the Bank.
Court of Appeal quashes BoG’s revocation of Unicredit’s license
The Court of Appeal has declared the decision of the Bank of Ghana to revoke the license of Unicredit as an unlawful exercise of its powers.
The Court has therefore quashed the revocation of Unicredit Ghana Limited’s license which was contained in Bank of Ghana’s notice dated 16th August 2019.
The panel of three presided over by Justice Gbiel S. Suubaareh consequently quashed the revocation exercise of Unicredit Ghana Limited’s license.
The unanimous decision of the Court of Appeal chaired by Justice Suubaareh with Justice Merley Afua Wood and Justice Janapare A. Bartels as panel members was delivered on Thursday, July 7, 2022.
The revocation of unCredit license was contained in Bank of Ghana’s notice dated 16th August 2019.
The Human Rights Division of the Accra High Court presided over by Justice Gifty Adjei Addo had in 2020 dismissed an application for Judicial Review filed by HODA Holding against BoG following the revocation of the operating license.
Dissatisfied with the decision, lawyers of uniCredit filed an appeal against the judgement of the High Court.
