Heritage Bank Plc is currently stuck in a
debilitating liquidity situation
; SaharaReporters has learned.
First Bank Plc, which handles Heritage Bank's universal clearing
activities, has threatened to blacklist the bank and stop further
clearing transactions if its outstanding deficit of over N5billion is not
cleared.
At the weekend, at a meeting held at a secret
location between the Managing Director and some top management staff,
it was resolved that the Managing Director and two Executive Directors should
resign their appointment for their role in throwing the institution into
distress.
Sources said the bank's operations in the Northern part of the
country region are sustained by one customer, Rano Oil Limited, which maintains
a deposit with Heritage Bank because its Chairman is unaware of the
severity of the situation in the bank has slipped into.
Among others, the Managing Director is alleged to have been
involved in the laundering of about N12.8billion. Two insurance
firms: IEI Insurance Plc, and the National Insurance Commission of
Nigeria, are said to be connected to the matter. SaharaReporters gathered
that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was prepared to charge
the Managing Director to court, but did not, following the intervention of
Senate President Bukola Saraki, who is a part-owner of the bank. The
EFCC, whose chairman is awaiting confirmation by the Senate, stepped back.
Customers with foreign currency deposits are facing
severe difficulties because they no longer have access to those
funds.
Because of the magnitude of the bank's problems and the
possibility of prosecution, the Managing Director is said to have taken ill.
Out of about 500
Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) of the bank in the Lagos metropolis, only 138 are
currently dispensing cash, the bank lacking money to feed the others.
Bank sources
said a sum of N140million is required to supply all the ATM locations, and
Heritage struggles to provide N10million for these ATM locations, which is why
its machines rarely dispense cash.
The bank's situation
is further worsened by boardroom intrigues, tribal politics and ownership
tussle.
The Managing
Director and one Executive Director are said to run the bank like sole
proprietors. The Managing Director and another Executive Director, Mary
Akpobomen, who has been promised the position of the Deputy Managing Director
by December, are in the same camp. The Yoruba interest in the bank, with
Board Chairman, Mr. Seyi Akinfenwa, also has Mr. Tayo Ayeni and two
Executive Directors, Mr. Niyi Adeseun and Mr. Ola Olabimjo on another side. On
yet another side are Mr. Godwin Emefiele, Governor of the Central Bank of
Nigeria (CBN), who is the main pusher of Delta State/Agbor interest. The
battle axes are said to be two other Executive Directors, Mrs. Ada Eze and
Mr. Jude.
The
three-dimensional feuds have ensured that positions, postings or deployments
are made on lines of group loyalty, with competence plainly
ignored. The bank's Treasurer, Mr. Abidemi Shonaiki, was eased out of the
bank when the Managing Director was on leave.
Insiders revealed that the bank has been turned into a compost
heap by its top management staff, who among other misdeeds, use customers'
naira deposits to finance the acquisition of private properties in Lagos,
Abuja, and Port Harcourt. They are also said to award contracts at
inflated costs to the Managing Director, relatives, and friends of executive
directors; employ top management staff without clearance from the CBN; bribe
CBN staff on banking inspection with dollars; and cover up the bank's liquidity
problems by buying cash from other banks without the required documents or due
diligence.
The Heritage Bank
management portfolio of misdeeds is also said to include
paying N100million bribe to pension funds officials for patronage
retention; illegal warehousing of N1.2billion that should be in the Treasury
Savings Account; as well as illegal clearance of customers' deposits via
issuance and payments of questionable ‘PRs’ in hundreds of millions.
The CBN Governor has
ensured that these misdemeanors are kept hidden due to political pressure by
the owners of the bank, and because the CBN doesn't want to give the appearance
of further distress in the banking sector following the recent crisis at Skye
Bank.
The bank's ailments
have also manifested in the practice of debiting customers' accounts for
transfers without crediting the beneficiaries for days, blaming it on network
failure; arbitrary sacking of staff who insist on standards; sacking of staff
who exposed the fraud involving the Nigeria Ports Authority through which
N7billion was illegally warehoused and diverted in clear violation of TSA
directives; and refusal to report fraudulent activities involving relatives and
cronies of the Managing and Executive Directors.
Other symptoms of poor corporate governance include the transfer to Abuja, but
not sanction, of an Executive Director and General Manager from Lagos for
committing fraud; promoting Managing Director’s relatives without appraisal;
fraudulent conversion of bank properties by the Managing Director and top
management staff; and the procurement of N2billion worth of furniture items and
N3billion Toyota cars without passing through tender procedure.
Also, the bank
awarded all cleaning contracts to one Mrs. Akpobome, who used different names
for contracts, which cover North, South, West, East and Abuja outlets of the
bank.
The Managing Director and other top management staff also award contracts
to their wives and children without due diligence.
The bank, the
sources added, employed school certificate holders as officers, assistant
managers, deputy managers or managers, even without experience.
Central Bank Reaction’s
The attention of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been
drawn to false and malicious stories on the social media insinuating that
Heritage Bank is under financial distress and therefore unable to discharge its
obligations to its depositors.
We wish to state that Heritage Bank is not in distress and
as such its depositors should go about their transactions without fear.
For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to further state that no
Nigerian Bank is in distress.
The CBN, as the industry regulator, has a duty to
depositors, in particular, and the economy, in general, to ensure the soundness
of all financial institutions.
We therefore wish to assure all depositors of the safety of
their deposits.
The CBN also wishes to state that it will remain alive to
its responsibility of ensuring banking system stability and soundness through
constant monitoring and supervision of all licensed institutions.
The Central Bank of Nigeria wishes to reiterate that the
banking system remains resilient enough to weather the current economic
storm.
Isaac Okorafor Ag. Director, Corporate Communication
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