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This follows Friday's decision by the Supreme Court of Appeal to uphold a High Court ruling, which prevented FNB from continuing to operate its Million-a-Month Account savings offering on the grounds that it contravened the National Lotteries Act.
Robert Keip, CEO of FNB's Savings and Investment Products, said MaMA depositors' funds will be made available to the customers at one day's notice should they wish to claim them until 15 May 2008.
Depositors' MaMA accounts will be automatically transferred to a 32-Day Interest Plus Notice Account. They will immediately earn a tiered interest on the balance held.
The group said it was with sadness that it had lost of its protracted court battle to keep one of its innovative savings products alive.
The court found that the R100 that depositors had to put into a 32-day notice account to stand a chance of winning one million constituted a wager and thus amounted to an illegal lottery.
It rejected the bank's argument that because depositors were entitled, upon expiry of 32 days, to the return in full of the money deposited, there was no potential loss to the depositor and thus nothing was given to the bank in return for the chance to win a prize.
- I-Net Bridge
