By Ashleigh Brown, journalist, Justmoney
The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) will not be investigating Satinsky, the company behind the ‘Drive a car for R699 a month’ scheme.
Justmoney has exclusively learned that SARB will not be investigating Satinsky in spite of accusations that Satinksy had altered information on customer’s vehicle loan applications. “The SARB is not investigating the Satinsky Group as it has not been determined that the entity is or has been conducting the business of a bank,” said Hlengani Mathebula, head of group strategy and communications at SARB.
This comes as another blow to the clients of the scheme who recently had their application for a class action suit against the banks and Satinsky denied. This resulted in the attorneys who represented, Pieterse Cary Finlaison Attorneys (PCF), R699-ers to take on the costs of the case.
The aim of the class action suit was to have the credit agreements with the banks – Nedbank’s Motor Finance Corporation (MFC), Absa and Standard Bank – declared to be reckless lending in terms of the National Credit Act.
If the class action suit was a success, the banks would have been obligated to take back the cars and declare the contracts between them and the consumers null and void.
Bank’s exposure
It was reported that Absa had R700 million worth of exposure to the R699 car scheme. Standard Bank’s revelation about their exposure pushed the overall exposure to the R699 car scheme by the banks to R2.768 billion.
MFC has a collective outstanding exposure of R1.6 billion to the R699 car deal scheme, almost double Absa’s exposure.
In a statement to Justmoney Nedbank claimed that: “Individual MFC clients who have purchased vehicles through the Satinsky Group since 2007 amount to approximately 14 000, with a collective outstanding exposure of R1,6 billion at 30 June 2014.”
More information
Justmoney’s sister website, Moneybags, has a full report on the claim made by the R699 car scheme clients, and everything you need to know about the R699 car scheme itself.
Affected R699 clients with Nedbank should contact MFC on these various channels for assistance with their loans:
• 699queries@mfc.co.za
• complaints@mfc.co.za
• 0860-879-900 (Tell the call centre agent you are a R699 / Satinsky client to ensure fast-track routing to the specialist support team).
For Absa clients call 0860 789 111 (click option 5) to enable Absa to assist you on an individual basis.