There’s finally some good news for SSL clients! 

So SSL investors were finally given access to their securities after months in limbo. Investors’ accounts were essentially frozen since the fraud investigation started back in January, meaning they couldn’t sell any of the stocks or bonds, or even access any cash in those accounts.

However, according to the Ministry of Finance as of September 22, SSL began transferring their clients’ Jamaican dollar securities to other brokers. So any stocks that you held with SSL, you can now finally access through another broker of your choice.

SSL has roughly eight thousand client accounts. So thousands of people have been unable to do anything for the last eight months. And it’s impacted companies as well.  Remember the FosRich rights issue that was super delayed because a lot of FosRich shareholders had SSL accounts but couldn’t access their shares. 

Finance Minister, Dr Nigel Clarke said the Jamaican Dollar securities should be transferred within the next six weeks, but the US dollar ones will take more time because they have to work with US regulators and US investment firms.

Another update is that the Government said it won’t have to pay the salaries of SSL staff members.

Dr Clarke said that SSL received an insurance payout of US$1 million, which will be enough to cover the operational expenses. That also kinda gives a  possible time for how long the company can keep running 

US$1 million roughly J$155 million.  According to the Finance Minister, SSL’s expenses are around J$15 million a month. So some quick maths … the insurance payout would cover about 10 months of expenses.

Hopefully, the investigation and winding up of the company can be done within that time, or we could be back to square one in ten months.

And that’s the bottom line.