To fully settle investors of the remaining failed 17 asset management companies (AMCs), the Securities and Exchange Commission will require an additional amount of GH¢5.5 billion, equivalent to 1.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), the interim Finance Minister, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has said.

Presenting the 2021 budget statement to parliament last week, he said government is seeking approval of the amount from Parliament to complete the asset management industry bailout.

Out of the estimated GH¢8.5 billion in total required to pay investors of the failed AMCs, legislators approved GH¢3.1 billion in the 2020 mid-year budget.

The bailout covers 47 failed asset management companies, including Gold Coast Fund Management (now Blackshield Capital Management), First Banc Financial Services, Liberty Asset Management, Beige Capital Asset Management, Ideal Capital Partners, and Frontline Capital Advisors.

By the end of December 2020, government had provided GH¢3.4 billion for the payment of validated claims to investors of 30 AMCs for which liquidation orders had been obtained. This amount was in a combination of a three-year marketable bond of GH¢2.5 billion and a five-year zero-coupon bond of GH¢915 million.

In December 2020, SEC revealed that 2,802 clients of the defunct fund management companies had received full or partial payment of their investments.

The full bailout package involves a special arrangement whereby the government will pay clients of defunct fund management companies whose liquidation has been approved by the courts the full amount of their investments within a three-year period.

The partial bailout, on the other hand, is a flat cash payment of GH¢50,000 to clients of fund management companies whose liquidation has yet to be approved by the courts.