Despite the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) assurances after withdrawing Heritage Bank’s licence, last week, that Nigerian financial system remains safe, sound, and resilient, stakeholders insist three banks have shown signs of distress.
It would be recalled that unlike the big stick, it wielded on Heritage Bank, the central bank early this year dissolved boards of three banks, the stakeholders said.
A cross-section of stakeholders, who spoke to Daily Independent at the weekend, said the signs of distress are there for everyone to see in the affected three banks.
They claimed that issues that led to the liquidation of Heritage Bank were in these banks.
An investigation by Daily Independent revealed that signs like board squabbles, management instability and the inability of branches to honour large transactions are occurring daily in these banks.
Daily Independent gathered that one of the banks has not been able to find its feet since it was acquired in 2017.
The bank was formerly owned by Sigma Golf River Bank Consortium after being acquired from the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) in March 2017.
The bank’s problems relate to many quantitative and qualitative challenges as the management and board have been unmindful of escalating expenses.
Investigation revealed that the bank is on the brink of illiquidity which was as a result of capital expenditure.
An insider source, who prefers anonymity, also revealed that political manoeuvring in the acquisition of the bank has played a devastating role in undermining the board’s credibility.
The insider source claimed that if the bank is to wriggle away from its current operating problems, the bank’s management will need to place a firm fist over growing corporate expenses, particularly the bank’s growing fixed assets and its escalating administrative costs.
He said, “To figure out a sustained corporate survival strategy, the bank needs to learn to lean into lower service costs while equally leveraging higher quality of staffers.”
The stakeholders said over time, one of the banks incurred losses that have eroded retained earnings, leading to negative shareholders’ equity.
The bank over the last few years has been challenged by toxic loans but adjusted by a combination of public sector deposits and CBN forbearance.
Public sector funds and CBN attention have appeared to keep the bank’s doors open. The same could be said of a few other deposit money banks (DMBs) but to a lesser degree.
A notable challenge to the bank’s evolution as a stronger and bigger retail lending brand is a narrow retail market presence in strategically important but competitive markets. The bank seems more concentrated in the Northern agrarian parts of the country than in commercial/industrial nerve centres.
The bank has been struggling to beef up its minimum capital requirement since 2017. In FY2022 for instance, the bank’s profit before tax slipped by -65.68% to N1.10 billion from N3.21 billion in FY2021, according to the analysts.
They said the bank’s total assets declined by -5.33% to N510.14 billion in FY2022 from N538.87 billion in FY2021.
Net interest income dropped by -3.55% to N19.34 billion in FY 2022 as +28.19% growth in interest expense underscored +13.45% growth in interest income.
In 2022, the bank posted an unfavourable financial position as the total liabilities of N785.092 billion exceeded its total assets of N510.143 billion by N274.948 billion.
In 2021, the bank reported a similar unfavourable financial position as total liabilities at N815.022 billion exceeded its total assets at N538.868 billion by N276.153 billion.
“The bank has over the years shown signs of financial distress as its total liabilities exceeded total assets in 2023 half-year results, raising concern that it may default on its obligations to creditors and be headed for bankruptcy”, one of the analysts noted.
The bank’s unaudited financial statements for the six months ended June 30, 2023, showed that total liabilities at N688.826 billion exceeded total assets at N509.998 billion.
The third bank was established by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on September 21, 2018, to offer commercial banking services to the Nigerian public. The bank commenced services on the same day, having purchased the assets, and assumed certain of the liabilities of a defunct bank.
Signs of distress, according to stakeholders, began to show shortly after it became a bridge bank following the rescue of the defunct bank by the CBN.
The bank in 2022 tinkered with the idea of merging with a tier 1 bank but the internal stress test conducted by a firm of assessors thwarted the merger.
The major reason then was weak adherence to corporate governance issues as it was discovered that the bank is still being controlled by its former leadership of the defunct bank.
To curb this, the bank was sold in 2023 to Strategic Capital Investment Limited (SCIL) after acquiring 100 percent equity stakes for N1.355 trillion.
A year after in 2024, the CBN undertook another intervention to prevent customers from losing their money in the bank by dissolving the board and management.