CBN faults report on Banks, caution against exceeding $50,000 annual limit on overseas withdrawal

No Nigerian Bank is in crisis, the Bankers Committee said on Wednesday after its 329th
meeting in Lagos.

  Briefing Journalists after the meeting, the Director, Banking Supervision of CBN, Tokunbo Martins described negative reports on the state of Nigerian Banks as unfounded.

    Martins assured Nigerians that the financial sector is sound despite  facing economic challenges which she identified as not peculiar to Nigeria as a country.

   She was accompanied by  Deputy Managing Director, Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank Plc), Mrs. Cathy Echeozo; Managing Director/Chief Executive, Skye Bank Plc, Mr. Tokunbo Abiru; Managing Director/Chief Executive, Stanbic IBTC, Mr. Yinka Sanni  and Director, Communication Department, CBN, Mr. Isaac Okoroafor.
 Martins said the Banks have strong capital base to meet their obligations.

   Explaining further, she said: “The report is false. The banks are adequately capitalized, so the report is not true. That does not mean that the banking sector is not feeling the economic headwinds. The headwinds are also in every other jurisdiction. It is not strange. So, non-performing loans at 11.7 per cent is not what we should focus on”.

  Making reference to retrenchment in Banking sector, she said: “One of the things we discussed was about the impending retrenchment in the banking industry. So, we understand that many bank staff are experiencing fears about possible retrenchment in the industry. We discussed it among the banks and the banks are now committed to not retrenching their staff going forward. So, whatever rumours are flying around about that mass retrenchment happening or not happening, that is not true”.

  She cautioned against exceeding CBN imposed annual limit of $50,000 on overseas dollar withdrawal through  Naira denominated cards per cardholder.
   Martins said:  “We have decided that the $50,000 annual limit will be limited to each  BVN, irrespective of the bank accounts or cards linked to the BVN. We have also decided to impose sanction on anybody found to have breached this limit. This include barring such individuals”.