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Harare Bureau
THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has with immediate effect suspended Tetrad Investment Bank banking activities pertaining to deposit taking and issuing of loans.

The suspension follows the financial institution’s continued failure to honour maturing liabilities including depositors’ funds.

“The Registrar of Banking Institutions has with immediate effect suspended Tetrad Investment Bank Limited’s banking activities pertaining to deposit taking and issuing of loans in terms of section 48 (1) (f) of the Banking Act (Chapter 24:20),” said RBZ in a notice yesterday.

Recently, Tetrad Bank entered into a scheme of arrangement with its creditors.

The scheme of arrangement, which was sanctioned by the High Court on September 24, 2014, would run up to January 31, 2015.

The central bank said:

“This suspension remains for the duration of the scheme of arrangement. This action has been considered necessary in order to protect the public whilst the bank implements the scheme of arrangement.”

In August this year, creditors and depositors of Tetrad Bank voted in favour of a moratorium to defer any payments to end of last month while awaiting its takeover by a consortium of investors.

It is believed that the takeover of Tetrad Investment Bank by Horizon Capital Consortium has been stalled by regulatory approvals.

The moratorium was meant to protect the bank’s assets from being seized by creditors pending finalisation of the rescue deal.

In May, Tetrad Holdings shareholders approved the takeover of the group’s investment banking arm by Horizon which has indicated plans to inject $200 million fresh capital into the struggling bank.

Horizon is made up of a Russian investor — Sergey Pokusaev, the Zimbabwe government and other local investors.

Tetrad Investment Bank was one of the seven financial institutions being monitored by the central bank under the Troubled and Insolvent Bank Policy.

The bank is a subsidiary of Tetrad Holdings established in 1995 and comprises an asset management company TFS Management Company, a micro finance company Multiridge Finance, an insurance company, THI Insurance and a property development and management company, Tetrad Properties.