IMF calls on Botswana to tighten banking laws

“Once a bank has become acutely distressed, the BoB has insufficient legal powers to resolve the bank effectively. The current powers are largely limited to the ability to issue directives to a bank, to place a bank into temporary management, and to apply to the court for the winding up of a bank or commencement of judicial management. The powers are not sufficiently certain or wide enough in scope to provide an effective legal framework for resolution,” the IMF said.

 There are two laws governing supervision of banks in Botswana, the Bank of Botswana Act (BoBA) and the Banking Act (BA), whose last significant revisions date back, respectively, to 1996 and 1995.