The Managing Director and Chief Executive of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), Mr. Umaru Ibrahim, has said that the directors and management of the failed Skye Bank Plc are being investigated to determine their culpability in the failure of the bank.Speaking at the opening ceremony of the NDIC’s, 2018 Sensitization seminar for Federal High Court Judges in Abuja, Ibrahim noted that both the NDIC and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) are monitoring the investigations of the law enforcement agencies instituted for the purpose.
He said the Corporation’s Risk Assessment and Forensic Investigation Reports revealed that the erstwhile management of the failed Skye Bank Plc. contributed to its failure by engaging in insider abuse, poor corporate governance and banking malpractices.
Local media reports quoted Ibrahim as saying that the reports identified various malpractices such as fraudulent false accounting, manipulation of accounting records to present false profits and ratios, unlawful loan and credit facilities, non-disclosure of directors’ interests and lending beyond the single obligor limit.
Ibrahim noted that the Corporation’s implementation of the bridge bank resolution option that established Polaris Bank Ltd that assumed the assets and liabilities of the defunct Skye Bank Plc, resulted in depositors’ unhindered access to their funds, the continuity of the operations of about 300 branches and the preservation of over 6,000 jobs.
He disclosed the Corporation has commenced the payment of insured deposits to depositors of the 153 Microfinance and six Primary Mortgage Banks whose licenses were recently revoked by the CBN.
Ibrahim added that the Corporation performs this statutory mandate by its appointment as Liquidator through a Winding Up Order granted by the Federal High Court.
He said the seminar for Federal High Court Judges with the theme “Challenges to Deposit Insurance Law and Practice in Nigeria” was specifically designed to address topical issues in Bank Supervision such as the regulatory framework of systematically important banks, the robustness of the legal system to facilitate criminal prosecution of Bank Directors and debt recovery under the Failed Banks Act.
In his remarks, the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Abdul A. Kafarati, noted that through the sensitization seminars, the impact has been a deeper appreciation of the implications of the mandate and activities of the Corporation, which has led to more proactive and accurate adjudication of cases brought before the courts.
