Golden Key clarifies; says repayment plan has reached tail-end of execution

In response to the Mirror Business article titled ‘Spat between CB and FinMin delays Golden Key repayment’, published on July 30 (yesterday), Golden Key Credit Card Company (GKCCL) Ltd Chairman Priyantha Fernando clarified that GKCCL has paid 9,123 security deposit holders, equivalent to 99.31 percent of deposit holders, under the repayment plan.

“We have reached the tail-end of execution of the repayment plan with 9,123 security deposit holders having been paid and 64 security deposit holders remaining to be paid, reaching a converge of  99.31 percent. 

Exactly, 5656 security deposit holders have been repaid from the funds released from the Treasury, amounting to Rs.7.4 billion, from August 2015 onwards,” he stated. Fernando noted that only 31 deposit holders below the Rs.10 million category and 33 deposit holders above the Rs.10 million category are remaining  to be paid, amounting to Rs.27.9 million and Rs.1 billion, respectively. 

“In the category of individual security despot holdings of above Rs.10 million, already 422 have been paid, a converge percentage of 92.75 percent,” he said.

Fernando also denied the allegations of some Golden Key depositors on the performance of the current Chairman and members of the board of directors of Golden Key, regarding their remuneration. 

“There is a determined monthly payment for the Chairman and members of the board of directors given in the Supreme Court order of August 2015 and their drawing has not exceeded the stipulated amount given in the order. 

Moreover, myself as the appointed Chairman of Golden Key by the Central Bank from April 2013 onwards, continuously functioned in that capacity and have not drawn a cent up to date from Golden Key and have supplied my services professionally to the selected task, despite my other professional commitments of sitting on director boards of seven companies and including being Chairman of Commercial Leasing and Deputy Chairman of Union Bank of Colombo.

Since all the directors hold respective remunerative and responsible positions, there’s absolutely no need to fear on the job security aspect upon the conclusion of the payment plan as approved by the Supreme Court, as stated by a particular depositor speaking to Mirror Business on condition of anonymity,” he stated.

The present GKCCL board comprises of Chairman Priyantha Fernando and two representatives from the Central Bank and Finance Ministry.

Meanwhile, Fernando stated that he’s unaware of the alleged spat between the Central Bank and Finance Ministry over the disposal of the reminder of assets belonging to GKCCL, which has been dragging the remainder of repayments to deposit holders. 

He said repayment to deposit holders is an ongoing process with the release of funds from the Treasury to the GKCCL account.

The government had pledged to the Supreme Court the depositors above Rs.10 million would be paid within a period of one year, from the date of settlement, which fell in August 2016.

Following the government’s failure to honour the Supreme Court undertaking, several depositors have filed a contempt of court application against the Central Bank Governor, Finance Minister, Treasury Secretary and members of the Monetary Board.
The next hearing of case will be on August 5.