Proshare Raise Red Flag On Heritage Bank In Latest Report

Photo Credit: Proshare Nigeria

Three months ago Proshare had cause to commit resources to investigate and produce an hitherto unpublished Confidential Report on Heritage Banking Company Limited, in direct response to the promptings of the advisory board members who wanted to know the true state of the bank which had another financial institution handling clearing operations for it at some time.

By this time, and curiously; it wasn’t such a big news that some of the bank depositors had experienced recurring challenges with withdrawals and staff exits did little to help matters. Yet, the restraint was important in order to ensure and support financial system stability as well as give the institution an opportunity to execute its resolution strategies without hindrance. After all, the institutional frameworks were in place to protect depositors and the system in general.

The task involved a lot of stakeholder engagements including sources we understood to be in a position to recognize, appreciate and make informed decisions. The revelations offered little comfort from history to, interventions up to the current state. We limited ourselves however to facts, data and evidence and submitted the report.

Further to the completion of this initial review, and in the interest of giving the financial system an opportunity to resolve the bank’s challenges through normal regulatory intervention and management effort at recapitalizing the institution or determination of the banks going concern status through a merger and acquisition (M&A) arrangement; the report remained private.

The burden of a moral hazard however appeared a bigger burden than tolerable or envisaged, especially given the evident ‘sailors survival’ approach that appears to have kicked in as seen through senior management exit, non-improving conditions, non-progressing talks around mergers and acquisitions; and recapitalization plans.

It has become compelling to highlight concerns about the bank formally; with the hope that ‘some intervention’ can happen to alter the trajectory of an inevitability. and remove the spectre of a bank waiting to die that overshadows the institution, unfortunately.

Proshare’s investigation into the bank revealed a few major concerns related to corporate governance and operational stability/sustainability. The primary issues included, but were not limited to the following:

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