I AM GLAD AS STAFF OF OCEANIC BANK HAVE STARTED COMMENTING ON THIS THREAD, TO SHOW YOU HOW BAD THINGS HAVE GONE OVER THE PAST FEW DAYS, STAFF OF THE BANK WOKE UP ON THURSDAY TO SEE DEBITS INTO THEIR ACCOUNT OF AMOUNT RANGING FROM N36K TO N68K FOR FOOTBALL CHALLANGE, AS IF THAT WAS NOT ENOUGH N8K WAS THEN DEBITED FROM STAFF ACCOUNT FOR CIBN, EVEN FOR THOSE THAT HAVE REGISTED BEFORE. FOR GOD SAKE ARE THIS SIGNS NOT GENUINE FOR PPLE TO KNOW THAT SOMETHING IS WRONG.

BELOW ARE SOME COMMENTS FROM INVESTORS AND CUSTOMERS ALIKE YOU CAN ALSO VIEW IT AT:

http://www.proshareng.com/news/singleNews.php?id=7293

mR Bob Ehidiamhen this result they are declearing it is for real becouse i see no reasons why after declearing all the huge profit at the end no bonus no dividend,yet they are making a hell of profit as they claims.i can remenber when last they give shareholders benefits.I just hope this one get to them so that they should stope giving us crap,and face reality for once
Email: bob2dey@yahoo.com 2009-08-01 16:20:50

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PRINCE ADESEGUN B. OYESANYA IS OCEANIC BANK A FAMILY BUSINESS OR A PUBLIC LIMIMITED COMPANY? I NEED CLARIFICATION ON THIS BECAUSE PURPORTED YIELDS PRESENTED ON THE NEWS PRINTS QUARTERS AFTER QUARTERS WERE NEVER TRANSFORMED INTO STOCKHOLDERS BENEFITS! FOR EXAMPLE, I PURCHASED UBA AND OCEANIC IPO ON THE SAME DATE, AND HAVE RECEIVED THREE (3) DIVIDENDS CUM TWO (2) BONUS SHARES FROM UBA, BUT TILL DATE, HAVE NOT RECEIVED ANY BENEFITS FROM MY INVESTMENT IN OCEANIC BANK PLC. THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS!! IT MAKES ME BELIEVE THAT THE MANAGEMENT IS REPEATEDLY PRESENTING COOKED BOOKS TO THE PUBLIC. I TEND TO BELIEVE TOO, THAT THE COMPANY IS ONE OF THE PURPORTED 'SICK' BANKS IN NIGERIA. IF THIS IS TRUE, SHAREHOLDERS SHOULD WASTE NO TIME IN GETTING THE BANK MERGED WITH ONE OF THE PROFIT-ORIENTED AND 'CLEAN-HAND' BANKS IN NIGERIA, SUCH LIKE: FIRSTBANK, UBA, OR UBN. IN THE ALTERNATIVE, WE SHOULD GIVE IT UP FOR GRAB TO FOREIGN INVESTORS. IT HAS BEEN SHAME TO THE MANAGEMENT OF OCEANIC BANK ALL THE WAY AND SHAMEFACEDLY, SHOULD ALL BE SACKED WITH IGNOMINY!!!
Email: oyesanya@yahoo.com 2009-08-01 19:51:52

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Simeon Odesanya Oceanic bank is a huge dissappointment.They made a provision of over 41billion naira on margin loans.That is where all the money we invested on the IPO went.The rest of the money goes to bogus staff renumerations and constant media adverts used in deceiving the people.I invested over 5million naira on a bank that is poorly managed and has no value.I implore the CBN to look closer at this family run bank and rescue the investing public .
Email: yinkaodesanya@yahoo.com 2009-08-01 20:35:07

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Ola Joseph Oceanic Bank is a Bank "we love to hate and we hate to love". Why this statement? a cursory look at the media gimmick this family financial power house communicate to us always show a Bank with a dynamic management ready to put smiles on the face of its investors but which always ends up making investors weary. Who are those that got the margin account? Who approved the advance of this huge facility (N49Billion)? What collateral did they bring forward before approval was giving? And who has been sanctioned for the bad decision? Can Madam Cecilia and her incompetent Executive Directors answer these questions? This is because, if I small shareholder request for margin loan, I will be asked to bring my father, mother and immediate family before the loan can be secured. My place of work will have to guarantee me; one person that earns more income than me will have to satisfy that I won’t run a way. And if God makes it impossible by Commission or Omission for me to make a late monthly repayment as agreed for the margin loan I will be charged extra even if it is for a day. Also, C.O.T will be collected aside the interest and management fees I have paid making me pay about 35% on top of the actual loan. So who is Madam Ibru deceiving? CBN should ask all these Banks to disclose who and who got the loan? Who approved them? What did bring to the table before the approval, how much do they still own to date? And, who have they sanctioned for the bad business decision made if any. Let it be known that, very soon some of us will start going to court to ask questions and seek for our rights, as we cannot just be ripped-off by deceitful and fraudulent cabals in the name of Bad Management Decisions. The present first and second quarter results posted by Oceanic Bank must translate into profitable returns and not paper profits for investors.
Email: olajoseph251180@yahoo.co.uk

osamaobama,nw im forced to think u have other reasons for starting dis post.pipl were debited ranging from 9k-36k,obviously,u either aint in d know any longer or ur js bent on making some ugly points.nobody dat had registered on d banks portal wt information of cibn registeration was also debited,hvnt seen one out of d hundreds of colleagues.if u were given d boots,see it as one of those tins n look forward to moving on,as i said earlia,ur prayer cld make tins better,though i agree it may nt b d best of times at d bank but certainly not as bad as u make it look.change ur ways bro

Guy but why talking like dis wen u know non of those things u said were true pls wen next u gossip try 'sometin so go to be true' I LUV OCEANIC BANK

if truely they sacked upto this amount of people, its most likely other banks will do same thing very soon. so i think all bankers should start submmiting CV to insurance company.

i want to use this opportunity to remind most Nigerians
that banking in this country is a mess!
fancy suits and halls without really banking.
anyway what do i expect when there is no professionalism
and ethics in the industry. doctors, nurses, lawyers
engineers all works in the bank ,all they do is
credit and debit with mushroom or no training.
BANKS ARE DUMPING GROUNDS FOR ANY KIND OF
GRADUATE. they should wake up and now what time is it.
They should borrow a leaf form the oil and gas sector
where professionalism is our core value.
i cant sleep cos of my money and shares in this
vulnerable banks.

I do not know how true this oceanic bank story is but i have a friend(works in oceanic bank) who called me two weeks ago and informed the bank is on fire. Really strange for a bank that is tagged one of the most peaceful banks in Nigeria.

Well the truth be told, our banks have been lying to us for a very long while. Most of our banks are actually dead. They give cooked figures every year. And no thanks to the CBN and their terrible auditing. Any bank apart from FirstBank, Union Bank and of course the foreign banks that declares the kind of profit we hear these days should be looked at twice. I know all these cause i actually audited some of our so called big banks and my God what i saw,

Of course it all remains my secret/burden cause i am not allowed to divulge by the powers that be. Most of us work in these banks and do not know what happens in the background.

Well we pray these practices wld soon come to an end before we witness a total collapse of the Nigerian financial system.

Is this conversation still on?,

@ OsamaObama

You are still an employee of the bank!?

I am fighting hard to refrain from commenting on the above,

Anyway to give you the final benefit of the doubt, since you have been so kind as to feed us all with this information about Oceanic Banks problems without proffering solutions,

, and as your motives have been questioned by several posters (some of whom by the way are also suspicious as they seem to have only recently joined Nairaland),

, could you state clearly what your objectives for this post are and how you believe your comments would be of benefit to:

1. Nairalanders & Nigerians in general
2. Oceanic Bank
3. Oceanic Bank employees
4. Oceanic Bank Shareholders

It is true that you may have done the honorable thing by "alerting" the general public of these issues but it is my belief though that unless an organisation is involved in an illegal act, employees are bound by non-disclosure agreements.

However I should commend you for "choosing" not to reveal the documents in your possession (on second thoughts I just realised that you may have done this only to protect yourself).

Patiently awaiting your response.

p.s. just in case you're wondering, I dont work, or even have an account or shares, with Oceanic.

"With great power comes great responsibility"

Hello All,

Well a lot has been said and a lot will still be said

For me I cant really blame Osamaobama .why?

Many posters on this tread are just politicians,I noticed some Oceanic staffs posting trying to protect their jobs!!! and also that some facts may have be exaggerated not only by Osamaobama but others with same feelings.

I am quite used to Oceanic bank-am not a staff anymore! the truth is that the once experience peace slogan is now lost!!!

Organizations right not must really downsize and some of us really appreciate this fact but these recent sacking is totally unoceanic ,it is a deep departure from the once experience peace banking. and I still believe that our MAMA-she will ever remain so i think Osamaobama will also still call her MAMA! -is really been misguided and rather acting under immense pressure.

The crux is this -why cant Oceanic just lay staffs off and give the right reasons instead of finding excuses -operating environment is tight due to economic downturn -simple !why shd management go out and become so frightended that now they want to jeopardize the team and the family like- spirit of the oceanic staffs that took several years to built?

The result of this ill conceived action is an Osama in the system! and many more talibans are coming out from the system-most staffs now work in fear- a right -about turn form what its used to be ,the organization culture is suddenly changed,U cant cough u cant laugh in the office no body knows who's next.-and i pray that those of U who are posting hollier than thou saying its people who are 'bad' that are being flushed out very soon u guys will come to this forum to confess ur sins-AMEN.

Solution: pls lay off staffs but please give the right reason dont hide under any names-lateness,unethicalconduct,sending mails and sort! I bet u if u lay off with the right messsage passed across even the affected once will still pray for the bank-that's the oceanic spirit.

well we- both past, present,sacked and yet to be sacked staffs still all owe alot to MAMA so let all pray for her-after all she taught us how to pray!!! even if u have been unoceanically laid off -pls pray!!!

@ harmlessx- you such a dunce, did you read my post upside down. i cant believe oceanic bank employed an otondo like you. Now i think there is real cause for panic, with an employee like you. i hope the current wave to clean the bank of its olodo staffs, sweeps you with it.

@ N101- abeg thank you jare, the guy needs to go to an evening school to upgrade his english.

@Op- one of your responsibilities, as an employee is to be a good image maker of your coyu, but so far, you have shown to be a disgrace to your organisation. what do you intend to profit from all this, by making investors and customers, panic, and pull out of oceanic, and the bank collaspes. you fail to realise you are i business cos of this same people you are trying to scare away. unless of course you are one of the bad staffs they have mistakenly employed, and you know the current cleansing will get to you. but what ever the outcome i will advise you desist from biting the fingers that have fed you. and better know, when you throwing dirt, you aint doing nothing but loosing ground.

goodluck!

It is not Oceanic Bank going through this mess. Intercontinental bank is near collapse, inter treat their staff like slaves. They don't make noise anymore since the reality has beaten them in the butt. Can you imagine inter slashing about %30 from their staff salary. Some rumors even claim that inter and some other banks are contemplating lay-offs or cutting their staff salary to a little bit above civil servant pay scale but the level of work stress will also reduce. FCMB, Afribank, Union Bank etc are going through the same problems as oceanic. My heart beat for Nigerian bankers.

from ur name "osamaobama", i already know u ar fake , why use all these nagative remarks at oceanic bank, it seems u ar one of the staff that was sacked, be carefull about what u say.

Finecat:

It is not Oceanic Bank going through this mess. Intercontinental bank is near collapse, inter treat their staff like slaves. They don't make noise anymore since the reality has beaten them in the butt. Can you imagine inter slashing about %30 from their staff salary. Some rumors even claim that inter and some other banks are contemplating lay-offs or cutting their staff salary to a little bit above civil servant pay scale but the level of work stress will also reduce. FCMB, Afribank, Union Bank etc are going through the same problems as oceanic. My heart beat for Nigerian bankers.

I know you dnt base ur inputs on mere speculations, so sad if this is TRUE

grow up. you expect him to use his real name to sign on?

pls i think we need to get our facts before we conclude ooo.
my friend's brother that works at the HQ in VI toldme its all lies.he said its true they are sacking but number of casualty havent reached 100 sef.
those with bad records,those that have querries before are the major casualties.he went on to explain that they even deduct somepeople who forward unnecesary mails to other collegues via their intranet.the more mails they send ,the more thier money is deducted.he gave an example of a man in IB or so,who lost 241k for such act.

he also confirmed that there is pressure on every staff to deliver cos all eyes on those who take thier job with levity.dats all i knw ooooooooooo

thanks. more facts please!

where professionalism is our core value. thats why people like u are needed.

@All,
I thougt the whole issue here was attacks and counter-attacks so I called a friend of mine who works in Oceanic bank in the North and guess what? her colleague was just sacked yesterday.
Reason: Age isssue in his results or so.

(obviously the guy lied about his age when securing the job)

Guilty as charged you may say abi?

The bottom line is this : Oceanic bank is sacking and they are looking for every way possible to do that!!!

SEUN,let's say d gospel truth, our country is bad. In every organisation today they kip looking 4 someone with experience and the age bracket of wat they, want even if d so called friend of urs lied abt his age i mean dat does nt mean they shld sack him.The main issue is that they are suffering from this recession of a thing.

Talking about proffering solutions to these problem our banks are presently going through I wrote my concerns and about  procurement solution to the problem at hand,since we have bankers on this thread ,help contribute to this dicussion on procurement solutions to the problems .

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-7497.0.html

[b]Nairalanders,

I have some concerns about the banking industry and how they conduct business especially as it concerns the procurement function,this is due to investors reaction to some banks second quater results,they seems to have bogus profit declaration without these book profits translating to dividends or investment growth especially with the crash in stock price across the capital market and the banks being terribly affected,no thanks to the margin loans wahala.

Procurement is the function that most organisation are turning to for help,not because it provides all the solution to an organisations problem but because procurement has a huge potential for savings that could help alleviate problems faced with the realities of global financial crisis that has dunned on our bankers despite guru Soludo promise that our banks are safe.

I do not have any experience in banking operations but there are associated activities in the banking value chain that portends huge savings potential,they are marketing(advertisements on all the media),Logistics(Fuel,Transportation etc),Power(Operations & Maintenance,other incidental services etc),Information Technology & Telecomunication,Manpower services,Security,, many more areas I may not know because i do not operate in this enviroment but nairalanders can help to identify more areas with potentials for savings.

What I have noticed is our bankers seem to be too corky and see no gains in procurement ,they know everything already and do not want to know more perhaps their see procurement as a rivalry profession.I discussed with some internal control guys in one of the new generation banks,they lack so much about the procurement knowledge that they think is just another fad and no thanks to the CBN who seems to also know everything about banking and nothing about any other thing,their control over the operation of these banks is terrible,I wondered how they could not realise that procurement issues even go beyond coperate strategy issues but coperate governance since procurement dwells on due process.

There are loopholes of procurement fraud and conflict of interest issues that pervades the banking industry ,there are examples of directors with brothers and sisters and family members registered as suppliers which are being used as backdoor channel for reaping investors of their hard earned money,masquerading as suppliers who are awarded contracts that are not competitively tendered.

My advice to the entire banking sector stakeholder is to start looking for solutions in procurement,unfortunately due to their naivety of what procurement entails,they think it is like just buying an item in the market without taking a lot of things into consideration as in the purchasing cycle.[/b]

@ yenks

What facts?

Haven't u heard, there's a global economic crises/financial meltdown/credit crunch/recession/downturn.

Of course there's smoke, its cos d whole worlds on fire.


Just FYI:

MCKINSEY QUARTERLY (another favourite of mine when i'm not on Proshare)

Leading a developing-market bank: An interview with the CEO of Nigeria’s Oceanic Bank
Cecilia Ibru discusses the current challenges of managing a bank in Africa, where the global economic crisis meets an ongoing local crisis of poverty and unrest.
AUGUST 2009
Source: Financial Services Practice

Crisis is nothing new for Cecilia Ibru: as the managing director and CEO of Nigeria’s Oceanic Bank International, she has dealt with the challenges arising from the present global recession in the context of Nigeria’s efforts at tackling issues—poverty, civil unrest, and corruption—that have kept roughly 70 percent of the country’s population below the poverty line. “Banking is about people,” she says, but when the people you serve are among the world’s poorest, that philosophy must meet the challenge of investing in men and women whose promise and value have long gone unrealized.

Yet that is precisely Ibru’s strategy. Since the founding of Oceanic, in 1990, the bank has supported economic development through public–private partnerships that invest in local businesses—and, as a result, has grown from a modest family-owned bank into one of Nigeria’s largest publicly quoted institutions. Ibru’s March 2009 appointment to the board of the United Nations Global Compact, a corporate-citizenship initiative chaired by the UN’s secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, solidified her reputation as a champion of corporate responsibility in a region long beset by corruption.

U guys shld take it easy on d poster thr is truth in every rumour.I actually spoke 2 a friend who wrks thr nd d bank is really layin staffs off evryday.D prob with OBIN has been on 4 quite a while nw,i notice ds wen dey laid of al batch A corpers that was d time evr 4 oceanic 2 do dat.I knw dy ll surpass wat evr challenge dy r facing infact evry1 has challenges in life.

To corroborate my post of yesterday.


We cannot disclose any details now but we shall tell Nigerians the truth about every bank. Not until the audit is completed, disclosing the details now is not healthy for us and the industry. What is of importance to note is that the good bank is not
necessarily the big bank. The good bank is the one with the ability to manage resources efficiently and deliver services.”---- Sanusi Lamido.

Analysts had said that applications for winding up proceedings against some companies and billions of naira losses written off within the last four weeks have among others become major issues in the financial market to watch keenly as a test of CBN’s resolve to truly move into a regime of sound corporate governance, improved disclosures and a culture of best practice risk management by all banks.

Culled from Bussinessday.

Sabak

The only thing i what to ask is what has Oceanic done for it share holders, when compared to banks like GT, Firstbank and even Access during this meltdown as you said with all the paper profit?

the only way i will measure a bank is what it declares at the end of the day. and so far only GT, Firstbank and Access are rated Very strong, till others tell us what they are given there share holders.

And Dangote becomes 17th President of the NSE,

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-306488.0.html

let's face reality, everything on this site is not true. oceanic might have problems which is not peculiar to Oceanic alone. Having made provision of N42 billon naira.The loans are not all bad but CBN made it mandatory for all Banks to declare their exposures. Oceanic is still a strong Bank, Half year result was released last week with profit 16.6 BT and 14.4 PAT. Shareholders will still smile. I must say this that Cecilia Ibru is the most humane all Banks CEO in Nigeria.Though, the Bank is now strict but all these sack issue is far from what was posted

@ Adamawa

Well said, to buttress your point here's a McKinsey Quarterly interview with Dr.(Mrs.) Cecilia Ibru.

http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Cultural_challenges_and_the_woman_CEO_An_interview_with_Nigerias_Cecilia_Ibru_2420

What can I say, there only a few Nigerians I'm proud of so I might as well support this one.

ok. keep on being deceived.

I have always read posts on NAIRALAND by passing, mainly to relieve boredom. But the current subject is compelling enough for me to chime in.

Banking globally thrives on perception. No Bank can survive a run on it. Hence we need to be careful about our choice of words in describing any bank. Having said that, I will comment as follows:
1. OCEANIC BANK is a 'special' bank. Hence her return on assets that were reputed to be one of the best in the industry. This is now in the past.
2. Mark my words, the current challenges the Bank is facing are largely unconnected with the global economy downturn.
3.  Talking about OCEANIC BANK today, the phrase that readily comes to mind is: "How art the mighty fallen!" No, the Bank will not go under, and things are not as bad as the picture OSAMAOBAMA painted, but these are trying times for the Bank. Yeah, some staff have been laid off, and a few more will.
4.  The way out of the Bank's position is a correction of the injustice of the past, and a reconnection to her source (GOD). 

KNZGURU has dwelt more in using publicly available information to market the Bank to the unwary. While I commend his efforts, I question his methods. One thing that dented the ratings of ex-president George W. BUSH and ex-British Prime Minister Tony Blair was the public's belief that both men were not saying the whole truth. At best their words were perceived as half-truths, and at worst utter lies. KNZGURU should not make the public hold up OCEANIC to such massive scrutiny.

I expect OCEANIC to humble herself and apologise to her shareholders for causing such massive loss of value. To shareholders who had coughed out so much (having been taken in by several promises of OCEANIC) and have gotten nothing, the least they deserve from a conscientious management is a heartfelt apology and immediate plans to create value for them. All these carefully staged press releases and interviews would not help, and actually perpetuates the belief that Management is aloof and unrepentant.

Thank you.

my friends who work in oceanic just saw this post and said its a big fat blatant lie. they are still building more branches and employing people so how could they be sacking? please we will prefer you post facts and not try to run down any organisation or dent the image of any fast growing business. how many people populate a branch and how many staff will tney lay off and still build new branches. please be strictly guided. is they person who posted this an oceanic bank staff? if you are, please state your branch and your state.

Some people just show terrible ignorance of how a business operates,its not d size and not the level of the ongoing activity.

We have cases of bigger companies , bigger and more competent than oceanic or whatever bank,I thought the man at the helm of affairs in CBN said it all,and then some people are still talking about wat their friends told dem.

Na una sabi, make una continue dey drink d sobo.

still, no smoke without fire, brother.