Cbn: Report On 14 Banks Ready

CBN: Report on 14 banks ready, but…
By EMEKA OKOROANYANWU
Friday, September 11, 2009

 
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The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) explained on Wednesday why the audit report of the remaining 14 banks has not yet been released to the public. It said the process of releasing the report has not been exhausted but on-going.

The bank said its top hierarchy was not divided over the report, rather that the various committees and sub-committees sitting over it have to give their inputs before it is released. It, however, debunked any allegation of confusion among the management of the apex bank.
A source within the apex bank told Daily Sun that there is a process that is normally followed in such matters. The source added that the process has not yet been completed.

“The examiners have finished their works. The report is ready. But the checks and the steps for clearance has not been done,” the source said.
Another source corroborated the first, saying that the committee of examiners has completed its work and would submit the document to the next level, which is the banking supervision, that will in turn and after its work, take it to the board of CBN bank examiners and that of the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC). After this, the report, he said, would go to the deputy governor, Banking Supervision, before going to the Board of Central Bank Governors and that of the NDIC.

He disagreed with insinuations that the apex bank is divided over the report, noting that; “the CBN is not divided. There is no confusion. It is understood that people are eager about the report, but there is no split in the CBN.”
According to the source, the remaining 14 banks are not terminally ill, as were the cases of the first five banks. “The current 14 banks have not shown tell-tale signs of illiquidity,” he said. He confirmed that the 14 banks do not have very serious illiquidity problems.
“These other banks have non-performing loans, but their cases are not as serious as the other ones whose management were sacked. The other five were going down and somebody had to do something,” the source said.

He explained that the five banks had to be handled first because of the serious nature of their problems as they could not meet obligations to their customers as far back as October last year. He added that even with those five, due process was followed, insisting the same process has to be adopted for these ones.
He explained that the searchlight was not beamed on the first five banks by the public then because, peoples attention were not yet directed at them.

The 14 banks whose audited accounts are now awaiting publication are Zenith Bank, First City Monument Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Spring Bank, Access Bank, Wema Bank, Equatorial Trust Bank, Sky Bank, Bank PHB, Ecobank, IBTC, Fidelity Bank and Citi Bank.
CBN spokesman, Mohammed Abdullahi, told Daily Sun yesterday that the process of auditing of the 14 banks is still in progress. “The process is not yet exhausted. There is no question of delay in publishing the report. Yes, the committee examining the books of the 14 banks have finished its work, but the report has to go to the committee on Banking Supervision,” he said.

Editor’s note:
A wrong story with same caption was ran in place of the above in our edition of yesterday. The production mix-up is highly regretted.


 
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