The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), has pledged to pay depositors of the now defunct Heritage Bank Plc with balances exceeding N5 million following the closure of the bank.
NDIC Managing Director/CEO, Bello Hassan, said this at the NDIC workshop organised for Finance Correspondents Association of Nigeria (FICAN) and Business Editors in Lagos yesterday with the theme, "Strengthening Nigeria's Financial Safety-net, The Role of Deposit Insurance."
According to Hassan, "The recent closure of Heritage Bank, following the revocation of its license by the CBN on June 3, 2024, underscores the NDIC's critical role in safeguarding depositors. Acting in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020 and the NDIC Act 2023, the NDIC was appointed liquidator to manage the orderly resolution of the bank and oversee the payment of its depositors and other claimants.
"In the discharge of this critical role of depositor reimbursement, the Corporation began the payment of the insured deposits of N5 million maximum per depositor within a record time of four days of the bank's closure. This was achieved using Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) as a unique identifier to locate depositors' alternate accounts in other banks without the need to fill forms or visits the NDIC offices."
He added, "This innovative approach has indeed, enabled the payment of 84.98 per cent of depositors with BVN linked accounts to date. The prompt payment of depositors, coming at a time when the Corporation had also recently increased the deposit insurance coverage from N500,000 to N5 million in Deposit Money Banks, significantly cushioned the negative impact of bank failure, especially during the current challenging economic climate. This achievement is consistent with the provisions of the International Association of Deposit Insurers (IADI) Core Principle 15, which emphasises timely payouts to depositors of failed bank.
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"Having largely reimbursed depositors their insured deposits, the Corporation is committed to ensuring that depositors with balances exceeding N5 million are also paid the balance of their deposits. These uninsured deposits represent a significant portion of the total deposits in Heritage Bank. In this regard, the Corporation is already working assiduously to ensure that, all depositors with amounts in excess of the maximum insured amount of N5 million are paid through liquidation dividends from the realisation of the defunct bank's assets and recovery of debts. The Corporation has already initiated the process of debt recovery and realisation of investments and physical assets of the defunct bank to ensure timely payment of the uninsured deposits of the defunct bank."
