Polaris Bank not sold, all banks safe, sound – NDIC boss

Mr Bello Hassan, Managing Director, Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has said that all Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) in Nigeria, including Polaris Bank are safe and sound.

Hassan made the clarification on the sideline of a three-day Capacity Building Workshop organised by the Legal Department of NDIC, for law enforcement agencies at BWC Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos, on Wednesday.

He also said that Polaris Bank was not sold as reported by some media recently.

Our correspondent reports that the event had, “Effective Investigation and Prosecution of Banking Malpractices that Led to Failure of Banks”, as its theme.

“All banks that are operating within the country are sound in as much as their licences have not been revoked.

“If there is a problem, the regulator that issues the licence will be the one to revoke the licence.

“In as much as the licence is not revoked, you’re free to continue to bank with the institutio; it means it is safe,’’ Hassan said.

The NDIC boss also explained that the corporation usually carried out stress tests on banks on a monthly basis, to ascertain their financial soundness.

He said: “The Central Bank also does stress testing, and so do we in NDIC. In fact we do it on a monthly basis to ascertain the financial soundness of those banks and we see no red line.

“When we talk of key financial soundness indicators, we are talking about the capital adequacy and liquidity and the quality of the assets.

“Those two solid financial soundness indicators that you use to gauge the safety and soundness of these institutions are robust.

“So, based on that, the banks are safe and sound; continue to bank with them.’’

Recall that the management of Polaris Bank recently discredited the report on the purported sale of the bank by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to private individual for N40 billion.