A private legal practitioner, Bobby Banson, has highlighted the contract that exists between banks and their clients.

According to him, financial institutions have no right to debit the account of customers without their consent.

He made this assertion after a number of COCOBOD bill investors had their returns rolled over, thus, locking up their funds for another six months.

But Mr Banson, throwing more lights on the predicament, said the move was illegal.

“Once the money hits your account and you get an alert, the position of the law is that the bank does not have the right to withdraw the money, unless it is an irregular credit to the account, but once the money is legally attained, the bank doesn’t have rights to debit it.

“So unfortunately for the banks that sent the alerts outs, and now sending an alert reverting that transfer, they would some questions to answer to their customers,” he stated.

JoyNews learnt that monies paid to investors who purchased cocoa bills on maturity on Thursday, January 19, 2023, were withdrawn from individual investors’ accounts without their consent.

COCOBOD issued the bill to raise funds. Many had bought the bills expecting to be paid back their monies with interest on Thursday January 19, 2023.

JoyNews understands the monies were actually paid on Thursday, January 19, 2023, only to be reversed on Friday, January 20, 2023.

Reports say, the banks have all day been under pressure from affected customers.

The banks have pointed to a directive from the Bank of Ghana ordering them to unilaterally roll over the bonds without first seeking the consent of investors.