Sarb starts winding up graft-hit VBS bank

The South African central bank said on Tuesday that it had started the process of winding up local lender VBS Mutual Bank, which was caught up in a corruption scandal earlier this year.

A report commissioned by the central bank this month titled “The Great Bank Heist” found that R1.9 billion ($130 million) had been looted by several people from VBS.

In March, VBS was placed under administration by the central bank because of liquidity issues. On Tuesday, the central bank said VBS was “hopelessly insolvent” and that the regulator had started a process to close down the bank.