Some EFC, Mercantile depositors yet to pick their money, says DPF 

The Deposit Protection Fund of Uganda (DPF) has asked depositors of the closed EFC Uganda and Mercantile Credit Bank who have not picked their money to make necessary arrangements to enable the Fund to pay their protected deposit up to the limit of Shs10m.  
Speaking during the Makerere University Business School 28th Annual International Management Conference, Mr Patrick O Ezaga, the DPF director of communications, said that whereas they had paid a good proportion of depositors in the two defunct banks, they still have several accounts that remain unsettled. 
“For the banks which were closed this year - EFC and Mercantile - we still have depositors who we are looking for to pay but they are nowhere to be seen and we have their money,” he said. 
However, he did not give more details on the number of depositors that have been paid and those that remain unpaid.  
Earlier, we had reported that the DPF had created a desk at Bank of Uganda to verify depositors in financial institutions such as Greenland, Teefe and Cooperative banks that were earlier closed by government for onward payment. 
However, the DPF clarified that no such desk had been created, noting that focus was now on dealing with the full payment of all depositors in EFC and Mercantile. 
In January and June, Bank of Uganda closed EFC and Mercantile, respectively over poor corporate governance and undercapitalisation.
Mr Ezaga said the DPF, which was initially under the Bank of Uganda, was created as a stop-gap measure to protect the interests of depositors, especially the less sophisticated ones. 
However, it was later established as a standalone institution under the 2016 Financial Institutions Act to act as insurance for the payment of depositors with up to Shs10m in the unlikely event that a bank closes. 
Depositors with deposits of above Shs10m are paid through a liquidation process of a closed bank undertaken by Bank of Uganda.  
Editor’s Note: This story has been edited to reflect the most accurate information contrary to what we had reported. 
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