VFSC: ‘Bless to Be Blessed’ Not Authorised To Operate As Credit Union
August 7, 2021 11:21 pm | Posted in Business News | Share now TwitterFacebook
By Hilaire Bule
The Vanuatu Financial Services Commission (VFSC) has served a notice to ‘Bless to Be Blessed’ to cease using the term ‘Credit Union’.
Commissioner Branan Karae said VFSC as the registrar of Credit Unions, have advised the management of Bless to Be Blessed that they are not authorised to operate as a Credit Union.
VFSC also urged Bless to Be Blessed not to use the term Credit Union to operate the business, until such time the entity is properly registered.
The act of the Credit Union stipulates that a “person carrying on business must not use the word “credit union” in the name of description or title under which the person carries on business”.
The act also says that “a person who contravenes subsection (1) is guilty of an offence punishable on conviction if a person is an individual by a fine not exceeding VT100,000 or two years imprisonment or both and in any other case by a fine not exceeding VT500,000.
Karae said that as a registrar, the VFSC has notified owner, Mrs. Jenny David and the legal representative to cease operating as a Credit Union with immediate effect as legal action will be undertaken if the notice is not complied with.
On Thursday this week, Daily Post witnessed that about hundred people gathered outside what is reported to be the new office of Bless to Be Blessed behind Wan Smol Bag building at Tagabe area.
The office was not open but men and women were waiting outside.
A woman told Daily Post they were waiting for Mrs. Jenny David and her management team who went to meet with the Reserve Bank.
Some of them were waiting since early hours in the morning.
Another woman said she went to ask for the refund of her money.
Daily Post also witnessed that majority of the people who were there at that time were mothers.
Some of them even carried their babies. A mother expressed with frustration why the authorities are against Bless to Be Blessed.
Many of them don’t care about the status of the scheme.
What they see is only the money (that goes to assist them).
