NewStats: 3,259,838 , 8,170,951 topics. Date: Monday, 26 May 2025 at 05:46 AM n3x61

unity bank is now stronger dan oceani,intercountinental and union bank.

The CBN has begun moves to encourage the takeover of the weak banks by those adjudged strong by the audit that led to the overhaul.


Sanusi met on Monday with the MDs of four banks believed to have come out clean at the end of the recent audit.

The meeting, held at the United Bank for Africa (UBA) head office on Marina in Lagos, was to convince them of the need to acquire some of the eight troubled banks.

Healthy banks being wooed include[b] First Bank, Zenith, and Guaranty Trust

The offer follows the thinking of Sanusi that the banks should remain in the hands of Nigerians, rather than being offered to foreign banks wanting to gain a foothold in the prime Nigerian market.

The CBN is, however, said to be favourably disposed to foreign banks operating in the country – which gives advantage to South Africa’s Standard Bank (operating as Stanbic IBTC Bank), Standard Chartered Bank, and Ecobank Nigeria.

Three of the four big banks are among those that have signified interest in returning to the market to raise fresh capital, the bulk of which is being sought by bond issuance.

First Bank and UBA have received shareholders’ approval for N500 billion bond each, and Guaranty Trust is seeking N200 billion, just like Diamond Bank.

UBA is believed to be interested in Finbank, as part of its expansion drive.

However, at the meeting with Sanusi, the bank chiefs were reportedly non-committal, as some argued that an acquisition cannot be done until after their bond issuance.

Both First Bank and UBA want to undertake a book building process, which First Bank MD, Bisi Onasanya, told shareholders would help determine how much is needed by the bank.

Sanusi who has repeatedly said the CBN will not be involve in the sale of this bank and that banks like UBA,ZENITH & FIRSTBANK with over 20% share of tne market will not be allowed to acquird this banks so that other banks can be giving the opportunity to grow.His agenda is begining to unfold.

About seven of the nine banks affected by the audit exercise recently concluded by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) may have lost a whooping N500 billion in deposit money between August 14 and this week. The banks are Oceanic, Afribank, Union, Finbank, Intercontinental, Bank PHB, Spring Bank and Equitorial Trust Bank ]ETB)
Sources at the banks told Saturday Sun that the run on deposit, which occurred in three stages following CBN’s August 14 pronouncement, started with retail customers, who withdrew over N200 billion from the first five banks, whose chief executives were removed by the CBN. It was learnt that the initial withdrawal of deposits was borne out of panic.

The situation, sources in the banks said, worsened following the gap between August 14 and last week when the CBN announced the second stage of its action, with various speculations in the air.
Saturday Sun gathered that, over N100 billion was also lost thereafter. This, it was gathered, came from corporate customers, which pointed at the confidence gap created by the CBN follow-up action as their main source of anxiety. They said that CBN statements, meant to rebuild confidence in the banking public, were full of errors and contradictions, a development, which ensured that withdrawals continued steadily.
According to investigations, the uncertainty generated a quiet run, which lasted throughout the duration of the second audit exercise of the 14 banks, which snowballed into the last stage. It was gathered that this affected a lot more banks and ed for the recently lost N200 billion, with Bank PHB and Spring Bank taking massive hits.

It was gathered that banks generally have been posting operating losses since August, as lending activities have virtually come to a halt. As a result of this, banks have been secretly reducing work force.
Sources revealed that Stanbic/IBTC recently laid off 300 staff, representing more than 10 percent of its staff strength. First Bank had sacked 500; Wema, 300; Union, 1, 000; and Afribank 500 and still planning to ease out another 300.

Meanwhile, it was gathered that the country may have only 15 banks by the time Mallam Sanusi Lamido concludes his consolidation programme in the banking sector. Sources said that the CBN has advised some banks to raise money and buy up the nine banks said to have liquidity problem, in line with the plan.
Towards the end, it was gathered some northern businessmen are positioning themselves to acquire Bank PHB and ETB, so that the North would have control of some banks. Sources said that the interest in Bank PHB is predicated on the fact that Habib Bank was part of it initially before the North lost out to the South under the consolidation during the Chukwuma Soludo era at the CBN.

Sources said that the bank audit and rationalisation may have a link with the 2010 election. It was gathered that with the shockwaves in the banking sector it would be difficult for some people to finance electioneering in 2010.

Saturday Sun reported last week that chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are worried that most of the bank debtors are people who had donated money to the party to execute political programmes. With such people battling to pay banks, they would not be in a position to render such assistance in future.
In such situation, only those who are controlling the banks, in that case the North, would be in a position to raise funds that could be used to execute political campaigns.

Can the CBN truly say it has been fair in its decision on Unity Bank? Granted that it must be commended for not succumbing to pressure that must have brought to bear just because the family of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua holds some interest in BankPHB. However, Section 14 of the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) provides stiffer sanctions for banks that fail to meet the minimum capital adequacy ratio as stipulated by the apex bank, which could include the withdrawal of the bank’s licence, than insufficient liquidity. Moreover, Unity Bank, a financial institution and publicly quoted company, has failed for two successive years to publish its audited/unaudited financial s, and yet, it was deemed by the CBN not to have “poor corporate governance practices”.
we now know better.

REASONS Y HE MUST GO


Curiousity and emerging central banking style must also have informed the approval of Oceanic Bank's annual report by the CBN, only for the regulator to turn back a few days later with damning figures to justify the bank's take-over. In the bank's 2008 s as duly approved by the CBN, the bank had an asset base plus contingency liabilities of N1.6 trillion, an asset base of N1.246 trillion, a deposit base of N835 billion, shareholder funds of N217 billion, and about N118 billion in earnings. By several standards this would be an excellent result. But Sanusi had other plans. He said the bank's dismissed CEO, Mrs. Cecilia Ibru, "begged" him to approve the s while outstanding issues would be sorted out during the audit. He agreed! Then he turned around and sacked her days later!

Rockson Engineering is one of the companies that have been tarnished by CBN's publication of the list of bank debtors. The company however blames the CBN for its predicament. It argues that aside from the fact that its debt is lower than the published figure, the company has outstanding $700 million CBN-issued Letters of Credit for power projects executed for the Federal Government. The company wondered why it had been impossible for the CBN to identify its own instruments, as a proper audit would have saved the company the embarrassment. Or was the CBN more interested in pushing out an alleged huge toxic loan figure than in detailed facts?

Sanusi has warned the banks' boards to behave or be dealt with. Many view this threat as a throw-back to the military era, meant to intimidate and silence vocal elements on the boards. They view such threats as unwholesome, coming from a regulator. This pattern also tallies with the allegation that the CBN and EFCC have been arm-twisting the affected banks' chiefs to sign-off their interests in the banks in order to give the CBN an easy ride in implementing its plan of selling off the banks to "foreign investors".

The tsunami has also caught up with vocal elements on CBN's board, including former CIBN President, Mrs. Juliet Madubeze, and radical economist, Professor Akpan Hogan Ekpo, who have been forced out due to Sanusi's reported tendency of brooking no opposition.

It has been noted that almost all the charges against FinBank's former chief executive, Mr. Okey Nwosu, are based on doctored returns to the CBN. While sources close to the CBN claim that the measures against the 14 outstanding banks would not be as damning as those already taken - maybe because the cherry picking has been completed - it remains to be seen how most of Nigeria's banks can escape the charge levelled against the former FinBank chief.

Many have noted that in all his calculations, Sanusi has apparently given little or no thought to shareholders of the affected banks. He seems excessively preoccupied with shopping for "core investors" to recapitalize the banks. As he put it, "Once these banks are stabilized and it is time for things to move on, our preference is for these banks to have a core investor that will run them professionally, " In an era where millions of Nigerians are now shareholders of banks, thanks to the consolidation scheme, to treat their interests and genuine concerns with such levity is very unsettling. For one, it will definitely have adverse effects on future public offers and rights issues.

President Barack Obama has injected over $700 billion as stimulus funds to shore up corporate America. Bank of America and Citibank were among the beneficiaries of bail-out funds. The entire process was well coordinated, transparent, and properly communicated. As a consequence, no distortions were witnessed.

In re-appointing Prof. Ben Bernanke as Chairman of Federal Reserve Bank, Obama said, "Ben approached a financial system on the verge of collapse with calm and wisdom." Can the same be said of Sanusi? Indeed, given the apparent contradictions that have pervaded his interventions, the germane question may yet be: Can this man be trusted? Only time will tell.


[Now, How Do We Trust Sanusi ?

but sanusi keeps deceiving us dat its only d 5 bank sack md dat erred.now we r gradually getting 2 d root of d matter.d remaining result will reveal sanusi's real motive

b4 anko.imf never c anytin good 4 africa.d west is always hapy wen a northerner is heading a top post like cbn gov. cos they know dat they r mumu.

yes afterall they are d true owners of d bank

Lamido Sanusi's agenda

There was no crisis in the Nigerian banking industry before Friday, August 14, 2009, as none of the banks had failed to meet its obligations to its depositors. This crisis was imposed on it.
What we are witnessing is a campaign of propaganda by the Central Bank with the intention to forcefully change the ownership structure of Nigerian banks.
Please note the following points:
• Why hurry to wield the axe, when the audit has not been conducted in all Nigerian banks to enable Sanusi gain a comprehensive picture of the situation in the industry? The weakest bank in Nigeria, Unity Bank, has not even been audited. Soludo's CBN granted N70 billion to Unity last year without sacking its CEO or management.
• The debtors' list has proved to be sheer propaganda as the loans are mostly actually performing.
• Why did Sanusi not publish debts owed by government ministries, agencies and parastatals? They are actually the biggest and most notorious debtors - either directly or through contractors who handle public project. For example, Transcorp is owing Union Bank N41 billion, but the government is yet to refund the purchase price of NITEL to the company after the Federal Government reversed the privatisation of the telecom company this year. Another important group of bank debtors are the importers of petroleum products. They say the government is owing them nearly N100 billion in subsidy reimbursement. So, this means that if the government that wants to rescue the banks fulfills its responsibility to those it is owing, the problems of the banks will be much lighter.
• Why did Sanusi not invite the boards of the audited banks to show them the results of the so-called audit and them how they think they could solve the identified problems; for example, giving them a deadline to recapitalise? The practice all over the world is to fist demand that the existing shareholders meet the capital adequacy requirement. It is only where they are not able to raise the required capital that forced intervention by the regulators takes place.
• Imagine that Sanusi is already saying he would like to sell the banks! After only one week of taking them over? That would be a world record in Central Bank intervention.
I advise Nigerians to learn a thing or two about Mr. Lamido Sanusi by reading the articles he wrote in the recent past. Please check. Then you will know where this man is coming from.
The CBN's powers of intervention are to enable the government protect depositors and creditors of banks. The laws are not meant to enable the government do what it is presently doing: confiscating the legitimate properties of citizens. The schemers at play want to confiscate these banks from their rightful owners and award them to of their ethnic group, the Fulani. Curiously, the EFCC is now going after the banks' chiefs. This is a strategy to intimidate them into submission. What has the EFCC got to do with bank loans? Loan default is not a criminal offence in any legal system. This is all propaganda. The so called sanusi should fear Allah.

Lamido Sanusi's agenda

There was no crisis in the Nigerian banking industry before Friday, August 14, 2009, as none of the banks had failed to meet its obligations to its depositors. This crisis was imposed on it.
What we are witnessing is a campaign of propaganda by the Central Bank with the intention to forcefully change the ownership structure of Nigerian banks.
Please note the following points:
• Why hurry to wield the axe, when the audit has not been conducted in all Nigerian banks to enable Sanusi gain a comprehensive picture of the situation in the industry? The weakest bank in Nigeria, Unity Bank, has not even been audited. Soludo's CBN granted N70 billion to Unity last year without sacking its CEO or management.
• The debtors' list has proved to be sheer propaganda as the loans are mostly actually performing.
• Why did Sanusi not publish debts owed by government ministries, agencies and parastatals? They are actually the biggest and most notorious debtors - either directly or through contractors who handle public project. For example, Transcorp is owing Union Bank N41 billion, but the government is yet to refund the purchase price of NITEL to the company after the Federal Government reversed the privatisation of the telecom company this year. Another important group of bank debtors are the importers of petroleum products. They say the government is owing them nearly N100 billion in subsidy reimbursement. So, this means that if the government that wants to rescue the banks fulfills its responsibility to those it is owing, the problems of the banks will be much lighter.
• Why did Sanusi not invite the boards of the audited banks to show them the results of the so-called audit and them how they think they could solve the identified problems; for example, giving them a deadline to recapitalise? The practice all over the world is to fist demand that the existing shareholders meet the capital adequacy requirement. It is only where they are not able to raise the required capital that forced intervention by the regulators takes place.
• Imagine that Sanusi is already saying he would like to sell the banks! After only one week of taking them over? That would be a world record in Central Bank intervention.
I advise Nigerians to learn a thing or two about Mr. Lamido Sanusi by reading the articles he wrote in the recent past. Please check. Then you will know where this man is coming from.
The CBN's powers of intervention are to enable the government protect depositors and creditors of banks. The laws are not meant to enable the government do what it is presently doing: confiscating the legitimate properties of citizens. The schemers at play want to confiscate these banks from their rightful owners and award them to of their ethnic group, the Fulani. Curiously, the EFCC is now going after the banks' chiefs. This is a strategy to intimidate them into submission. What has the EFCC got to do with bank loans? Loan default is not a criminal offence in any legal system. This is all propaganda. The so called sanusi should fear God.

Lamido Sanusi's agenda
There was no crisis in the Nigerian banking industry before Friday, August 14, 2009, as none of the banks had failed to meet its obligations to its depositors. This crisis was imposed on it.

What we are witnessing is a campaign of propaganda by the Central Bank with the intention to forcefully change the ownership structure of Nigerian banks.

Please note the following points:
• Why hurry to wield the axe, when the audit has not been conducted in all Nigerian banks to enable Sanusi gain a comprehensive picture of the situation in the industry? The weakest bank in Nigeria, Unity Bank, has not even been audited. Soludo's CBN granted N70 billion to Unity last year without sacking its CEO or management.

• The debtors' list has proved to be sheer propaganda as the loans are mostly actually performing.

• Why did Sanusi not publish debts owed by government ministries, agencies and parastatals? They are actually the biggest and most notorious debtors - either directly or through contractors who handle public project. For example, Transcorp is owing Union Bank N41 billion, but the government is yet to refund the purchase price of NITEL to the company after the Federal Government reversed the privatisation of the telecom company this year. Another important group of bank debtors are the importers of petroleum products. They say the government is owing them nearly N100 billion in subsidy reimbursement. So, this means that if the government that wants to rescue the banks fulfills its responsibility to those it is owing, the problems of the banks will be much lighter.

• Why did Sanusi not invite the boards of the audited banks to show them the results of the so-called audit and them how they think they could solve the identified problems; for example, giving them a deadline to recapitalise? The practice all over the world is to fist demand that the existing shareholders meet the capital adequacy requirement. It is only where they are not able to raise the required capital that forced intervention by the regulators takes place.

• Imagine that Sanusi is already saying he would like to sell the banks! After only one week of taking them over? That would be a world record in Central Bank intervention.

I advise Nigerians to learn a thing or two about Mr. Lamido Sanusi by reading the articles he wrote in the recent past. Please check. Then you will know where this man is coming from.

The CBN's powers of intervention are to enable the government protect depositors and creditors of banks. The laws are not meant to enable the government do what it is presently doing: confiscating the legitimate properties of citizens. The schemers at play want to confiscate these banks from their rightful owners and award them to of their ethnic group, the Fulani. Curiously, the EFCC is now going after the banks' chiefs. This is a strategy to intimidate them into submission. What has the EFCC got to do with bank loans? Loan default is not a criminal offence in any legal system. This is all propaganda. The so called sanusi should fear Allah.

LET D SACK MDS GO TO COURT I'M SURE THEY WILL DEFINATELY WIN.WE ALL KNOW SANUSI IS WORKING ON A SCRIPT.ALL HIS ACTION IS ANTI SOLUDO.D FG HAS A HIDDEN AGENDA 4 APPOINTING A FORMER BANK MD AS CBN GOV. DIS MADE SANUSI BIAS TOWARDS SOME BANK

This whole has been publish by vanguard in march dis yr.nobody can convince me dat sanusi is not working on a script.but i bet u d mallam will surely fail.

hw can u sack md witout recourse 2 d board,shareholders or even given an opotunity of defending thier self,y not finish conducting audit of d whole bank b4 taking action.NIGERIAN SHOILD RISE UP B4 DIS MALLAM KILL OUR INSTITUTNS WITH DAT D SOUTHERN LABOUR HARD 2 BUILD.

sanusi got it all wrong. even if d md r found wantingi don't xpect him 2 make d sack a public knowlege considering d parnic it will generate

while complaining wen u av so many alternatives.

FinBank, come in

@Davidyland.the catholic owns the vatican bank the riches in the world yet the pope did not see the need to fly a private jet but flies alitalia.In the end time pple will b lovers of pleasure than lover of God so d bible says.i pity dose dat call them their pastor.

dat woman (akunyili}lost my respect d day she the papa deceive pikin party{PDP}

Banking with FINBANK BANK open doors of oportunity.Come in, and bank as u wish.

the church has become abig conglomerate.

we r definately in d end time.

attended IPPC in Nigeria was giving a testimony about the seminar and said a pastor , Reverend ray who is the secretary general of christ embassy was preaching about loyalty. And he said you have to be "loyal to GOD, JESUS, and our father". He further went on to say that "their" father is Pastor Chris and loyalty to him will bring glory upon our lives.

I have said it and will say it again, the followers of christ embassy are more controversial than the man called pastor chris, A classic example is the man perming his hair-I see nothing wrong with it and he can do what ever he likes to his hair. But when male of the congregation start perming their hari because their father is perming his hair then who do u blame? Another example is the fact that most christ embassy quote their pastor than the bible so u would rarely hear" According to the word of GOD" rather you hear " PAstor Says in so so Tape or sermon"

I have no problem with pastor chris. he is an intelligent man and his sermons are brilliant but his healing school ministry should be open to independent media houses if he has nothing to hide .I have been watching benny hinn who is also an intelligent dude but his miracles have been debunked by the US media and his style is just like pastor chris but yet again ONLY GOD KNOWS WHO IS TRULY SERVING HIM. SHALOM

Will Jesus wear a Rolex?



TRUE TALK MY BRODA IT BEAT MY IMAGINATION 4 A MAN OF GOD 2 B PERMING HAIR WE R DEFINATELY IN D LAST DAYS

wayoo bank.monkey dey work, baboon dey chop

nigerians are crying 4 food not honour.tanx GANI 4 Speaking 4 d masses

supreme court, supreme fire

bros ur source is not genuine.finbank,skye etc as @ 2007 has over 200 branches as against d rubish posted on d site.i hop dis is not another attemp by banks 2 discredit 1anoder

no wonder their staff are runing everywhere even to UNITY BANK

2.6m and u r saying access is d highest payer wen finbank has been paying dat since there last review in june.ocean also pay higher dan dat.

lets hope this is d begining f obamalogy in nigeria democracy where d wishes of d pple will prevail @ d end.congratulatns comrade.

rubish d contestants are unpolished, no wonder heir themocool is no more