Operating licences of 132 microfinance banks, four primary mortgage banks, and three finance companies in the country were withdrawn by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The apex bank in a circular on its website said the licences were revoked because they ceased to carry on in Nigeria, the type of business for which their licences were issued for a continuous period of six months.
The revocation exercise was promised on an official gazette of the federal government published seen on the website of the CBN yesterday.
According to the circular from the apex bank, some affected banks were guilty of failure to fulfil or comply with regulatory conditions for operating as commercial banks upon which their licences stood in contravention of the provisions of Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020, Act No. 5.”
According to the gazette, CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele, revoked the licences in the exercise of the powers conferred on the Central Bank of Nigeria under Section 12 of BOFIA 2020, Act No. 5.
The banks affected by the CBN action are: HL Invest & Trust Limited, TFS Finance Limited and Treasures & Trust Limited.
Others in the category of microfinance banks listed include Bluewhales Microfinance Bank, Igangan Microfinance Bank, Mainsail Microfinance Bank, Everest Microfinance Bank, Merit Microfinance Bank, Musharaka Microfinance Bank, Nopov Microfinance Bank, among others.
The four primary mortgage banks are: Resort Savings & Loans, Safetrust Mortgage Bank, Adamawa Savings & Loans and Kogi Savings & Loans.
Meanwhile, managing director and chief executive of the corporation, Mr. Bello Hassan gave this assurance in a statement which followed the revocation of the licenses of the affected MFBs and PMBs by the governor of CBN, Mr. Godwin Emefiele.
Hassan said, as deposit insurer, the NDIC would begin the process of payment of the insured sums immediately with the verification of eligible depositors at the respective premises of the closed banks.
He enjoined such depositors to get the required documents for the exercise such as proof of account ownership, verifiable means of identification and alternate bank account to facilitate their seamless verification and payment of their insured deposits.
The NDIC boss stated that the insured deposit is the first claim that the corporation pays to depositors upon revocation of bank’s license by the CBN, adding that, the maximum specified limits for the MFB and PMB sub-sectors are N200,000.00 and N500,000.00 per depositor per bank, respectively.
As liquidator, the MD/CE disclosed that the corporation has also put machinery in motion to commence sales of assets of the defunct banks as well as recover debts owed to them in order to declare liquidation dividends on pro rata basis to the affected depositors with claims exceeding the maximum insured sums of N200,000.00 for MFBs and N500,000.00 for PMBs.
He assured that regulatory authorities are leaving no stone unturned to ensure that the soundness of the banking system is not compromised, stressing that there is no need for the public to panic over the safety of their bank deposits.
In their reaction to the development, the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), assured depositors of the closed banks speedy payment of their insured sum, following the revocation of licenses of Microfinance Banks (MFBs) and Primary Mortgage Banks (PMBs) by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
