By Ademola Alawiye

Wednesday, 9 Feb 2011

Indications have emerged that some Deposit Money Banks that have not complied with the Central Bank of Nigeria’s directive on divestment from non-banking subsidiaries under the new banking regime to have started fresh moves to comply.

Our correspondent gathered from a source at the CBN that some banks had yet to submit their plans on their non-banking subsidiaries. He added that the banks were just making moves to submit their plans to the regulator.

The source, who craved anonymity, said, “Some of the banks have not submitted their plans on whether they want to have a holding structure or they want to divest completely. The few ones that submitted have had their plans approved by the CBN. Some of the banks are making moves to submit their plans soon.”

The CBN, in a statement on the revised banking model had said, “The new banking model repealed the universal banking regime and required banks to divest from all non-banking businesses. All the existing universal banks are required to prepare and submit to the CBN their plans on compliance with the new banking regime not later than 90 days from October 4, 2010.”

Access Bank Plc notified the Nigerian Stock Exchange last week of its intentions to completely divest from its non-banking subsidiaries namely: United Securities Limited and Access Investments and Securities Limited.

The Group Managing Director and Chairman, Union Assurance Plc, Mrs. Funke Osibodu, had said during the company’s last Annual General Meeting in Lagos that the board was coming up with a plan on what to do with its subsidiaries.

She said, “We will come up with a proposal on our plan in terms of whether we want to hold the group holding, which is basically what we have now or bank holding as Union Bank. We have not taken a decision yet, but, whatever that decision is, Union Assurance will continue to be very close to us.”

The Head, Corporate Affairs, CBN, Mr. Mohammed Abdullahi, in an interview with our correspondent, said, “The 90 day deadline is for the banks to submit their plans, the deadline for the divestment is 18 months from October 4, 2010. Some banks have complied by submitting their plans but not all, but I can tell you that they’ve all shown interest.”

At present, more than 12 banks have ownership in insurance or homes and mortgages or securities companies.

Some of the banks are Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, First Bank of Nigeria Plc, Bank PHB Plc, Spring Bank Plc, United Bank for Africa Plc, Access Bank Plc, Diamond Bank Plc, Intercontinental Bank Plc, Sterling Bank Plc and Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc, among others.

Source: Punch