Investigative report on the failed Skye Bank Plc has revealed that the management and staff of the bank engaged in activities which resulted in the collapse of the bank.
Skye Bank Plc was liquidated in September 2018 by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) immediately commenced its liquidation. In order to avert the disastrous consequence on the bank’s customers, a bridge bank, Polaris Bank, was set up to take over the assets and liabilities of the Bank.
However, the NDIC has revealed that an investigative report by law enforcement agencies has linked the collapse of the Skye Bank to criminally unprofessional and unethical practices of the bank’s management and staff.
The Executive Director of the NDIC Umaru Ibrahim made this known at the opening ceremony of the corporation’s Sensitization seminar for Federal High Court Judges in Abuja.
According to him, “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.
“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”.
The NDIC boss pointed out that the corporation’s implementation of the bridge bank resolution option that established Polaris Bank Ltd that assumed the assets and liabilities of the failed 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.
Umaru further disclosed to participants at the event that the corporation has commenced the payment of the insured deposits to depositors of the 153 Microfinance and six Primary Mortgage Banks whose licenses were recently revoked by the CBN.