Maputo — The Bank of Mozambique (BM) says it is monitoring the international financial market to gauge the impact of recent events, including the bankruptcy of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) in the United States and the sale of Credit Suisse to its former rival, UBS. The collapse of Credit Suisse is especially relevant to Mozambique because the bank was deeply involved in the “hidden debts” scandal.
Under President Armando Guebuza, illicit guarantees issued in 2013 and 2014 enabled Credit Suisse and the Russian bank VTB to lend more than US$2 billion to three fraudulent, security‑linked companies—Prondicus, Ematum (Mozambique Tuna Company) and MAM (Mozambique Asset Management). Three Credit Suisse bankers—Andrew Pearse, Detelina Subeva and Surjan Singh—admitted taking millions of dollars in bribes from Privinvest, an Abu Dhabi‑based group that was the sole contractor for the three companies.
The Mozambican Attorney‑General’s Office (PGR) is suing Privinvest and Credit Suisse in London and seeks to have the Guebuza‑era loan guarantees declared null and void. Despite the sale of Credit Suisse to UBS, the Bank of Mozambique says it is not concerned. “Although the national financial market is dominated by banks subject to international regulations, the risk of contagion does not exist,” a central bank spokesperson told the Maputo daily *Notícias*. He added that “the national banking sector shows satisfactory performance, with high levels of solvency and liquidity.”
Following SVB’s bankruptcy, the Bank notes that U.S. authorities implemented emergency measures that allowed clients of the failed banks to access their deposits.
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