The new Board of Directors of privately owned Al-Saray Trade and Investment Bank (ATIB), elected by the General Assembly on 20 April, assumed its duties from the Interim Management Committee installed by the Central Bank of Libya (CBL) on 2 May 2003.
The handover ceremony was attended by the Chairman of the ATIB Interim Committee, Miloud Al-Furtas, the members of the Interim Committee, and the new members of the ATIB Board of Directors, whose selection was approved by the CBL.
On the occasion of the handover, leading Libyan businessman Husni Bey, a major shareholder in ATIB, said in an exclusive interview with Libya Herald that he commends the efforts of those who contributed to the bank’s journey from 2007 to the present day. He affirmed his and all the bank’s shareholders’ great confidence in the members of the new Board of Directors elected by the bank’s General Assembly.
Bey stated that he and several ATIB shareholders were honoured to attend the handover ceremony. He emphasised the role of the Interim Committee in preserving depositors’ and shareholders’ funds and achieving growth despite challenges.
Pending court case
Regarding the cases pending before the courts by the former ATIB Board of Directors, “We are confident that the (current) Governor of the Central Bank of Libya will do justice to the previous Board of Directors after reading the final report submitted by the Chairman and members of the Interim Committee to the Governor, Naji Issa, and the Central Bank’s Board of Directors. The report will include all the details of the disputes, including those related to shareholders, as the bank was not a party to the dispute,” said Husni Bey.
He expressed his hope that the Interim Committee will submit a comprehensive and complete report outlining the bank’s history, the performance of the previous Board, and its current trajectory to date. “Thus, we will have overcome a difficult phase and look forward to a new dawn.”
For his part, Miloud Al-Furtas, Chairman of the Interim Committee, appointed over the past years by the CBL, praised his committee’s efforts in assuming the task, commending the bank’s executive management.
May 2003 CBL suspension of ATIB Chairman and Board of Directors
It will be recalled, and as previously mentioned, that in May 2023, the CBL temporarily suspended the chairman, Naaman Elbouri, and the Board of Directors of the privately-owned ATIB and installed an Interim Management Committee (Board).
The CBL decision (No. 103 of 2023) installed a temporary management committee for ATIB for an initial period of six months. This was subsequently extended by the CBL.
CBL ignores April 2024 court ruling
However, despite a court ruling in April 2024 cancelling the 2 May 2023 decision of the Governor of the CBL to suspend ATIB’s Board of Directors from work, the CBL chose to continue running ATIB with an Interim Committee.
Wrong use of its power of suspension?
Commenting on his suspension at the time, ATIB Chairman, Naaman Elbouri, said the CBL had used its power to suspend a bank’s board and its chairman wrongly and considered that the use of this power did not apply to ATIB in that instance.
The move had been criticised at the time by one of the bank’s leading shareholders, businessman Husni Bey, who had pointed out that there had been “intensive” inspections by officials, who had praised the bank’s performance and its staff, and that the bank’s capital and structure were “not within the competence or concern” of the CBL.
CBL’s unsound monetary policies
Bey was one of the leading, open, and vocal critics of the CBL’s monetary policies under the outgoing CBL Governor, Sadek El-Kaber. He felt that his criticism was constructive, pointing out that the CBL’s policies at the time had caused division between the seven members of its Board of Directors.
This division led to a west-east split of the Board of Directors. This resulted in the printing of LD 40 billion in money in both the East and West Libya, which in turn led to the depreciation of the Libyan Dinar by 65 percent. Bey believes it also caused the so called ‘‘Letter of Credit wars’’ from 2016 to 2019 and resulted in rampant inflation throughout the years of 2015-2020.
It is believed that it is this constant vocal criticism of CBL policies by one of ATIB’s leading shareholders that led to ATIB being singled out and inspected over the past years by the CBL – more than any other bank in Libya. Yet despite these almost forensic regular inspections, ATIB had ironically only received praise and commendation by all the Interim Committees appointed by CBL.
With the removal of CBL Governor El-Kaber and appointment of Naji Issa as the new CBL Governor, it seems that a new phase in the CBL-ATIB relationship has been reached.
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