An official statement from LBDI says the bank continues to remain financially sound.
The Liberian Bank for Development and Investment (LBDI) says a publication in the Monday, September 2, 2019 edition of the In Profile Daily Newspaper, captioned: "LBDI TO SHUT DOWN?" is far from the truth. The story, also lifted in the GNN Online Newspaper, speculates a possible shut down due of the Bank to borrowers' default payments.
The In Profile Daily and GNN Online news articles pointed to allegations that Minister of State Nathaniel McGill and a road contractor, Tony Lawal, Chief Executive Officer of Praise Gloria Lawal, both took loans worth hundreds of thousands of United States Dollars from LBDI and have defaulted on said loans.
In a brief chat with the Daily Observer, LBDI President John B. S. Davies described the story published by those two news organs as "fake news".
Lewis Glay, editor of the In Profile Daily, told the Daily Observer that though he did not personally handle the story before publication, he knows and trusts the work of the reporter who wrote the story.
An official statement from LBDI says the bank continues to remain financially sound.
"LBDI wishes to assure its valued customers, stakeholders, partners and the general public that despite the general economic challenges, the Bank continues to remain financially sound and assures the public that all of its Branches across the country remain open for business," the statement said.
It continued: "The Management of LBDI, with the approval of its Board of Directors, is currently undertaking major enhancements in its digital financial services through a migration of its Core Banking Software. ATM services and other business processes to provide more convenience to its customers. We are aware that these reform exercises are adversely impacting service delivery across the Enterprise. The Bank encourages that press and other stakeholders to join the transformation initiatives."
