Some prominent debtors of the five banks whose management were sacked on August 15, had at the weekend initiated frenetic political moves aimed at halting further publication of lists of bank debtors in the 19 other banks. The moves began as the one-week deadline given by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to the debtors to pay up or risk prosecution expires this week.
Also last week, the five banks opted for new survival strategies to reposition their respective institutions said to have been battered by the unprecedented debt profile.

THISDAY checks reveal-ed that following the last week publication of list of the biggest debtors of the five banks, namely, Intercontinental Bank, Oceanic Bank, Union Bank, Afribank and Finbank Plc, some of the debtors, who are said to be highly placed individuals have launched into desperate moves to seek an audience with President Umaru Yar’Adua over the issue without success.

[b]A source disclosed that because efforts to secure the sympathy of some close aides of the President, including the Governor of the Central Bank, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi had met the brick wall last week, some desperate ones among the highly connected debtors were already planning to travel to Saudi Arabia to meet with the President, who is currently on a lesser Hajj to the holy land.

According to the source, those angling for the stoppage of further publication of names of banks debtors know that their names will also feature prominently by the time the CBN examiners are through with the audit of the books of the other 19 banks, a development that is capable of scuttling some ongoing talks with their foreign business partners.

The source said because some of the affected individuals assumed that they have the ear of the president, they believed it won’t be difficult persuading him to stop the CBN from going ahead with the publication of debtors of other banks.

Financial sector watchers said apart from their bid to put a stop to the ridicule and shame associated with debt issue in the country, some of the debtors who are business leaders are also worried by the cancellation of foreign lines of credit occasioned by the turmoil in the Nigerian financial sector.

THISDAY learnt that already, foreign banks have started cancelling credit lines to some Nigerian companies on account of what is happening in the financial sector.

For instance, PNB Paribas has reportedly suspended its transaction with Interconti-nental Bank, claiming that it is not sure of the situation in Nigerian financial sector.

It was also gathered that the manufacturers of some of the equipment meant for some of the National Integration Power Projects (NIPP) have informed their Nigerian customers to stay action on the equipment to be manufactured pending when the dust raised by the actions of CBN settles down.
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CBN sacked the bank chief executives for incompetence on debt management and consequently injected N400billion to boost their operations.
The sack of the chief executives was followed by a publication of names of individuals and companies who owe the banks N747 billion. Names of many prominent business magnates featured in the list published last Wednesday

However, the CBN, which admitted errors in the titles of some agencies indebted to the banks last week, warned that more lists of other debtors and defaulters are being compiled and would be published in due course.

Meanwhile, the removal of chief executives of five banks and the attendant chain reaction at the weekend spurred their successors to embark on an overhaul of the systems and processes they inherited at their respective institutions.


http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=152414 click the link and read the rest

We await the list oooh.