Having been advised by SAPO, the Minister hereby seeks to amplify the reply to the question as follows:
No member of the Gupta family approached the Postbank to open up an account.
An employee from JIC Limited approached the Postbank’s Head of Sales and Customer Care telephonically in August 2016 to open an account. The Postbank requested details of the company and financial statements. Upon receipt of this information, Postbank established that JIC Limited is part of the Oakbay Investments (Pty) Ltd.
The Postbank responded that it did not have capabilities to service corporate accounts such as risk management, IT infrastructure for large volumes, corporate electronic banking, corporate products such as Forex, trade finance, corporate lending, etc. Currently the Postbank mainly services individuals, SMME’s and small scale NGOs.
In 2017, a secretary of ANN7 called the Postbank with an intention to open a corporate account. Postbank responded that they were unable to do so at this stage for the same reasons as were presented in 2016.
Approved/Not Approved
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Dr Siyabonga Cwele, MP
Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services
Date: