The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has hinted to begin payment of insured sum to 2.3 million depositors of Heritage Bank in-liquidation within the week.
The Managing Director of NDIC, Bello Hassan, said this while briefing journalists in Abuja on Wednesday.
This comes two days after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced the revocation of the bank’s licence.
CBN said Heritage Bank violated section 12 of the Banks and Other Financial Act, the CBN as it could not improve its financial performance, “a situation which constitutes a threat to financial stability”.
The NDIC managing director said the move to pay the bank’s depositors would help to engender confidence among depositors to promote financial stability.
He said that 99.9 per cent of depositors of the defunct bank had a deposit balance of less than five million naira while only 4,000 of the depositors had more than N5 million deposit.
Mr Hassan said the bank had deposits worth N650 billion and loans of about N700 billion.
He said the deposits and the loans could be more, adding that the final amount would be known at the end of the liquidation processes.
According to him, customers with Bank Verification Number (BVN) will be paid without verification with the Corporation while those without BVN will visit the nearest NDIC office or website for their verification.
The managing director said that there was no need for depositors to panic as the corporation would settle all insured deposits.
“NDIC has assumed charge of the Heritage Bank.
“The bank has 116 branches and regional offices and we have deployed close to 400 staff of NDIC to take charge of the assets.
“If you have N100, we will pay you, if you have N5 million, we will pay you, if you have N10 million, we will pay N5 million for now because that is the insured sum.
“Depositors do not need to panic; you will get your money back.
“We will start payment of the insured sums by this week, but it will be difficult for me to give the time frame for the payment of the uninsured deposits,’’ he said.
On challenges of banks’ liquidation, he said the Corporation had experienced difficulties in loans recoveries.
Hassan, however, assured that the Corporation would immediately commence the process to avoid delays.
On litigations, he said the corporation was ready for any litigation that would emanate from the handover of the bank.
Hassan said the corporation would rely on support from the judiciary for expedited hearings on any debt recovery case brought by the corporation.
“When cases are delayed in debt recovery, it is depositors that suffer.
“We believe that the judiciary will give the cases accelerated hearing,’’ he said.
The managing director assured bank customers that the system was safe and sound, saying that they should continue their banking businesses without fear.
(NAN)
