The Accra High Court, Commercial Division 6, Presided by the assertive Justice Sedina Agbamava has ordered First Atlantic Bank to pay a whooping amount of Eight Million, Four Hundred and Thirty Nine Thousand, Nine Hundred and Fifty Nine Ghana Cedis and Sixty-Two Pesewas (GH¢8,439,959.62) to a customer of the bank for loss suffered by the customer from the bank tendering his bonds for the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme without his consent.

The Court in the case of VIHAMA ENERGY COMPANY LTD & ANOR v. FIRST ATLANTIC BANK [TLP-HC-2025-06] awarded exemplary damages of Two Million Ghana Cedis (GH¢2,000,000.00) against First Atlantic Bank with cost of litigation of One Hundred Thousand Ghana Cedis (GH¢100,000.00) in favour of the Plaintiffs who were represented by Lawyers from Gratia Law Consult led by the learned Alfred Paapa Darkwah.

The amount of GH¢8,439,959.62 was an amount the 2nd Plaintiff would have received on his bonds but for the tendering of his bonds for the receipt of an interest way lower than what would have accrued to the customer.

Bank had no evidence of risk

Justice Sedina Agbamava in her ususal crisp analysis of commercial claims resisted the defence and counterclaim offered by the Defendant Bank through their lawyer, Augustine Kidisil that the regulator, Bank of Ghana, was coercive in its request to bondholders to submit bonds for the debt exchange programme and the failure of the Bank to submit the bond of the 2nd Plaintiff, Sebastian Klenam Asem posed risks to the operations of the Bank.

The Court in its judgment delivered on the 12th day of December, 2025 available on Case Report of The Law Platform Library held that the bank acted negligently and failed to safeguard the investment the customer had entrusted to the bank. The court held at page 11 of the judgment that "The Defendant's unilateral decision to tender the bonds without the consent of the owner was a fundamental breach of its mandate and fiduciary trust as no such discretion was warranted by the facility agreement or any other instrument."

STAR OF THE MONTH - Professor Philip Ebow Bondzi-Simpson ESQ.

Narration of facts

The Plaintiffs, Vihama Energy and Sebastian Asem acquired a loan facility from the Defendant Bank, which facility was secured by Government of Ghana Bonds (GOG-26) and ESLA Bonds (ESLA-31), duly lodged with the Defendant as collateral. Per the claims of the Plaintiff as upheld by the Court, at no material time did the Plaintiffs execute any documentation or give any consent authorizing the tender of the said bonds into the Government’s Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP).

Notwithstanding the absence of consent, the Defendant unilaterally and unlawfully tendered the Plaintiffs’ bonds into the DDEP, purporting to do so in the interest of the Defendant Bank. The Defendant sought to justify its conduct on the basis that the Plaintiffs had allegedly defaulted in repayment of the facility and that the bonds were at risk of becoming worthless if not tendered.

Her Ladyship Agbamava J. found no evidence for the claims of the Bank which claims were contained in their over 100-paragraphed Statement of Defence. The Court found that the Plaintiffs duly discharged all their obligations under the loan facility, and subsequent events confirmed that the bonds retained their full value.

The Court through the evidence of the witness of the Bank found that after the commencement of the suit, the bonds were eventually restored to their original state and that, during the period in which the bonds were wrongfully lodged under the DDEP, the Plaintiffs did not receive all coupon payments to which they were lawfully entitled to, thus, the order for the payment of the amount of over 8.43 million cedis to the 2nd Plaintiff together with hefty damages to serve as a firm "disapproval of a party's [bank's] egregious conduct."