THE Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Friday announced the withdrawal of the operating licence of Skye Bank, and took over the bank.
Godwin Emefiele, CBN governor, said in consultation with the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), the CBN decided to establish a bridge bank, Polaris Bank, to assume the assets and liabilities of Skye bank.
Mr Emefiele added that the strategy is for the Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) to capitalize the bridge bank and begin the process of sourcing investors to buy out AMCON.
“By this decision, the licence of the defunct Skye Bank is hereby revoked,” he said, adding that “all customers of Skye Bank shall be automatic customers of the new bank and their accounts and records duly purchased by Polaris Bank.”
The CBN governor explained however that given the good performance of the board and management of the bank, the CBN shall retain them. In addition, he said, all employees of Skye Bank shall be absorbed by Polaris Bank under a new contract except any employee decides to opt out.
Skye Bank had in 2016 been under the radar of the CBN after the apex bank discovered some “unacceptable corporate governance lapses as well as the persistent failure of Skye Bank PLC to meet minimum thresholds in critical prudential and adequacy ratios, which culminated in the bank’s permanent presence at the CBN Lending Window.”
The focus of the action then was to save depositors’ funds and to ensure that the bank continued as a going concern, being a systemically important bank, Mr Emefiele said Friday.
