Establishing Crane Forex Bureau and Crane Bank
At the time, the vast majority of Ruparelia's customers were foreign nationals who paid for their stock in foreign currency. Ruparelia spotted opportunity.[13] He quickly formed an informal foreign exchange business. It was then unexploited market in Uganda and although the sector then operated informally the demand was overwhelming and the business became an immediate success from which Ruparelia was making daily profits of about $10,000. He started investing part of the proceeds in prime properties in Kampala.[16] In 1989, President Yoweri Museveni banned the importation of beer in an effort to encourage indigenous manufacturing of alcohol but Ruparelia was not interested in producing beer and decided to focus on his informal Forex business instead.[13]
By 1990, the forex businesses had bourgeoned in Uganda and the government moved in with a regulatory policy to govern them hence introducing licensing requirements in order to operate. Ruparelia's Crane Forex bureau became the first to be licensed in Uganda and within 6 months, he had started making more money than the commercial banks in the country .[17] The said banks were operating incompetently with arrogance as if they were doing customers a favour, on top of charging exorbitant interest rates yet there were limited choices.[17] This caused much frustration to Ruparelia who was a customer propelling him to create a bank with professionalism in operations and charging low interest rates and in 1995 he started and launched Crane Bank with USD$1 million and came up with a motto for his new bank: Serving To Grow And Growing To Serve.[18]
He lowered bank charges and extended banking hours, becoming the first commercial bank to operate up to 5 pm and on Saturdays.[19] The bank won the Banker of the Year awards in: 2003, 2005,[20][21] 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 by the Financial Times in London.[22][23] In 2011, the bank posted a 32.3 increment in profit before tax, rising to Shs 90.23 billion ($37 million)[24] from Shs 68.19 billion ($28 million) in 2010 and by 2012, Crane bank was worth $120 million in capital with 38 branches across the Uganda.[25][26]
In September 2012, Crane Bank acquired the assets and some of the liabilities of the National Bank of Commerce, a small, indigenous, financial services provider in Uganda that had lost its banking license.[28]
On 30 January 2014, Crane Bank established Crane Bank Rwanda Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary, with the first branch in Rwanda opening to customers on 30 June 2014.[29][30]
The bank was a large financial services provider in Uganda and As of 31 December 2015, Crane Bank's assets were UGX:1.81 trillion, with shareholders' equity of UGX:281.43 billion.[31][30] In October 2015, it had more than 750,000 customers.[32]
Bank and Forex Bureau Closure by Central Bank
On 20 October 2016, the central bank of Uganda took control of Crane Bank, the largest subsidiary of the Ruparelia Group, due to undercapitalization[33] and sold it to Dfcu Bank in 2017 for UShs 200 billion ( US$53,321,780).[34]
In April 2017, the central bank of Uganda shut down his four forex bureaus as a result of unrenewed licenses.[35][36] In March 2019, BoU paid Ruparelia Shs280m (US$74,650.49) for the closed forex bureaus.[37]
Uganda Supreme Court orders return of Crane Bank to Ruparelia
In July 2022, the Ugandan Supreme Court ruled that Crane Bank be reverted to Ruparelia and asked Bank Of Uganda to pay the costs, alluding to fraudulent transactions by Bank Of Uganda.[38][39][40][41]
