About thirty seven Micro Finance Banks, MFBs may soon be liquidated officially, according to Ronke Sokefun, Chairman of the Board of directors of Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC).
Sokefun was speaking at a chat with the theme: “A Conversation on Deposit Insurance, Banking Supervision, Failure Resolution and Bank Liquidation in Nigeria,” organized by Babalakin & Co Legal Practitioners recently. The NDIC Chairman said that : “The truth of the matter is that most of the MFBs and Primary Mortgage Banks (PMBs) don’t meet our conditions. As at the end of Q1, 37 MFBs were listed for closure. They could no longer pay their depositors, there was cessation of businesses and persistent non-rendition of monthly returns.”
She said there was clear indication of failure as during the period, these primary mortgage banks, PMBs had insured deposits of N112 billion but non-performing loans was N65bn. “So, more often like I said, a lot of these MFBs and PMBs don’t meet the conditions which we set to enable us to rescue them,” Sokefun noted.
Sokefun also called for the adoption of a definite timeline for a “bridge bank”,which she describes as “ a temporary arrangement” meant to acquire the assets and liabilities of a failed bank, until final resolution is achieved. Of course, the aim is to ensure stability in the financial system.
She said the CBN and NDIC must agree on a timeline for any bridge bank, because “anything that doesn’t have time can’t be measured”.
On Polaris Bank (for Skye Bank), NDIC said it remains a bridge bank by the Central bank of Nigeria, CBN until the NDIC can find interested investors to acquire the bank. Said Sokefun: “That intervention saved over 6,000 jobs. The bank had well over 200 branches and deposit was in excess of N940 billion, which depositors still have unhindered access to.”
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