Banks and related financial institutions fall in an extremely sophisticated yet vulnerable industry. The banks are not only vulnerable to external threats such as robbery, theft, financial loss, economic turbulence etc, but are also affected by their reputation and image within its internal employees and external customers. If a bank is suffering from negative reputation, it not only hurts its finances, but also creates pressure for the employees who work for the bank. Therefore, reputation is an important ingredient for institutions like banks to survive and thrive in future.
Finance Bank Zambia is a known bank is the country. The bank was founded by Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani who is a known and respected businessman in Zambia. He is currently the ex-chairman of Zambia after the bank was handed over to another entity. Since its inception, the bank has grown rapidly in terms of branches, financials and popularity among the citizens. It was also awarded with various honours and accolades. Even after that, Finance Bank suffered from negative reputation due to the continuous attack by Simaata Simaata, a known critic of Dr. Mahtani. The negative reputation had more severe impact on the bank’s image as these were given in the form of testimonials at several Zambian courts. Even though the testimonials were personal and Simaata’s own opinion, it created chaos and misunderstanding, ultimately impacting the bank’s reputational health. Finance Bank never saw depreciation in its financials and business equity like that before and in order to save itself, a case was launched at the Supreme Court Zambia.
The case went on for many months wherein both parties tried to prove their arguments and claims. Finance Bank claimed that Simaata not only broke the agreement he signed with the bank, he also damaged the bank’s reputation with negative campaigns. At the end, Simaata was rightfully convicted and charged with penalty for creative disruptive campaign that caused business and financial loss for the bank.