The Judiciary yesterday concluded the assessment of K1.1 trillion compensation claimed by the defunct Finance Bank Malawi with the verdict expected in October this year.
The bank is claiming K1.1 trillion following a February 3 2026 Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal judgement which faulted the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) for revoking the bank’s licence in 2005. The court said the decision was unconstitutional.
Yesterday, the State and the bank’s lawyers examined RBM chief examiner Titus Chima, who said he was in the supervisory team for the bank.
High Court of Malawi and Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal Assistant Registrar Ibrahim Hussein gave the bank’s legal team seven days to make submissions before the State responds by September 18 2026. The bank’s right to reply has a September 25 deadline before final oral submissions on September 28 2026.
“Thereafter, the court will deliver its ruling within the 21 days from the 28th of September,” he said.
During yesterday’s court appearance, one of the bank’s lawyers, Wapona Kita, put it to Chima that since the bank was not operational, two methods were used to compute the claimed amount.
He said forensic reconstruction to calculate loss of profits came to $134 million (about K234.6 billion) while a comparative method using National Bank of Malawi resulted in a figure of $551 million (about K964.8 billion).
Kita also noted that senior members of staff of the bank were ordered not to report for work in 2005, which he argued made it impossible for the bank to operate; hence, the claim for damages.
But during re-examination, private practice lawyer Alfred Majamanda representing the State, Chima read documents that indicated the restriction order was issued by a magistrate’s court through the Anti-Corruption Bureau.
In February this year, the Supreme Court faulted RBM’s decision to revoke the bank’s licence over alleged malpractices, including claims that the bank opened ghost accounts used to externalise foreign currency. The ruling ended a 21-year legal battle dating back to May 2005.
