- Assures depositors of payment in 7 days
The Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) on Wednesday vowed to recover over N700 billion loan owed by debtors of the now liquidated Heritage Bank.
The Managing Director of the Corporation, Bello Hassan, who stated this at a press conference in Abuja assured customers of the bank that if the N700bn loan is recovered, it would effectively cover the N650bn that customers have deposited with the bank.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had on Monday taken a significant step to ensure stability in the banking sector by revoking the license of Heritage Bank Plc.
The CBN, in its mandate to ensure a sound financial system in Nigeria, revoked the license of the bank with immediate effect and asked NDIC to commence process of liquidation.
This action was taken under the powers granted by Section 12 of the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020.
The NDIC boss also assured depositors of the Bank that they should not panic as the Corporation would commence payment of their money within the next one week and not 30 days as stipulated by law.
He said, “Preliminary findings show that depositors fund was about N650 billion while the Bank loans was around N700 billion.”
Hassan further disclosed that “Among the 2.3 million depositors of the Bank, 99 per cent have deposits below N5million which is within the threshold which the NDIC insures for bank depositors.”
The CBN, in its mandate to ensure a sound financial system in Nigeria, revoked the license of the bank with immediate effect.
This action was taken under the powers granted by Section 12 of the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020.
Speaking on the move, the NDIC Boss said that based on preliminary assessment of the books of the bank, the amount of depositors fund is about N650bn.
The NDIC boss assured customers of the bank that if the N700bn loan is recovered, it would effectively cover the N650bn that customers have deposited with the bank.
He said, “From our preliminary assessment, we have found out that Heritage Bank has N650bn deposits and loans is about N700bn and if we recover this amount, no depositor will lose their deposit.
“We assure depositors that there is no need to panic and tbat they will get their money bank.”
The NDIC has been appointed as the liquidator of Heritage Bank. Customers with insured deposits will be paid up to the insured limit of N5m. There had been fears that customers of amounts exceeding the insured limit may be at risk.
Hassan disclosed that there are 2.3 million depositors of Heritage Bank, of which about 99.9 per cent of that figure have less than N5m as deposits, adding that only about 4,000 depositors have about N5m and above in the bank.
