Blue Affirms Operational Status in Other African Countries

The pan-African financier, Blue Financial Services Limited (Blue Group), on Wednesday moved to clear the air about claims that the regulator, the Financial Services Board (FSB), had withdrawn its license to operate in South Africa.  The Johannesburg-listed firm admitted that on the 1st of last month, the FSB had withdrawn the license of Blue Financial Services (South Africa), preventing it from offering insurance products connected to unsecured lending.

This was after Blue (South Africa) was suspended late last year for failing to supply the FSB with its annual financial accounts for
the years ending February 2012 and February 2013.  But the Blue Group said the withdrawal of Blue (South Africa) from acting as a financial services provider (as it pertains to the offering of insurance products) did not affect the overall business activities of Blue Group and the business activities of its subsidiaries in other parts of the African continent.

Blue Group, through its subsidiaries, still has operations in Ghana Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, Zambia, Tanzania, Namibia, Botswana, and Swaziland, providing unsecured lending to its customers there.  “Since the suspension of its authorization, Blue South Africa has not collected the insurance premiums owing to it due in terms of the credit life insurance and home owners insurance cover, which forms part of its unsecured lending products sold to its customers in South Africa,” Blue said in a statement released late on Wednesday.

Copyright Ventures Africa 2014