Mr. Bello Hassan, Managing Director of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), said that all Depository Banks (DMBs) in Nigeria, including Polaris Bank, are safe and sound.
Hassan made the clarification on the sidelines of a three-day capacity building workshop hosted by the NDIC Legal Department, for law enforcement at the BWC Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos, on Wednesday.
He also said that Polaris Bank has not been sold as some media reported recently. According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the theme of the event was “Effective investigation and prosecution of bank malfeasance which led to bank failures”.
“All the banks operating in the country are healthy as long as their licenses have not been revoked.
“If there is a problem, the regulator that issues the license will be the one that revokes the license. “As long as the license is not revoked, you are free to continue doing business with the institution; it means it is safe,” Hassan said.
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The NDIC boss also explained that the company typically stress-tests banks on a monthly basis, to check their financial strength. He said: “The Central Bank is also doing stress testing, and so are we at the NDIC. In fact, we do this every month to check the financial strength of these banks and we don’t see any red lines.
“When we talk about key financial soundness indicators, we are talking about capital adequacy, liquidity and asset quality.
“These two strong financial strength indicators that you use to assess the safety and soundness of these institutions are strong.
“So on that basis, the banks are safe and sound; continue to do business with them.”
Recall that the management of Polaris Bank recently discredited the report of the alleged sale of the bank by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to a private individual for 40 billion naira.
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