BVN Discrepancy Delays NDIC Payout to Defunct Heritage Bank Costumers

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has stated that account name discrepancies in Bank Verification Numbers (BVNs) linked to alternate accounts of some defunct Heritage Bank customers are the primary reason for the delay in payment of their insured deposits.

Mr Bello Hassan, the Managing Director of NDIC, said the agency had paid a substantial amount to depositors of the defunct bank without BVN account-linked issues.

Recall that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) revoked the licence of Heritage Bank Plc in June in contrivance of the bank’s breach of Section 12 (1) of the Banks and Other Financial Act BOFIA, 2020. The apex bank also said the board and management of the bank have not been able to improve the bank’s financial performance, which it noted to have constituted a threat to financial stability.

The NDIC days later said it would commence the payment of trapped funds to 2.3 million depositors of the Heritage Bank but it has not been able to do that optimally due to the BVN discrepancy.

Now, the NDIC called on depositors of the bank who were yet to receive their insured deposit credit alert to visit the NDIC’s website and complete their verification forms for their payment.

The managing director said the verification would also include depositors without BVN alternate accounts.

”We have already commenced the payment of customers since June 6. We have paid a substantial amount to the customers.

“What we leverage in making the payment is the BVN of customers. We trace alternate accounts in other banks and pay them their insured amounts.

”There are some that we have challenges linking up because of some discrepancies between the names and others.

”We are calling on customers that have not received their alerts in their alternate accounts to come forward and complete their verification forms so that we can pay them,” he said.

On payment of depositors with more than N5 million with the bank, Mr Hassan said they would be paid liquidation dividends.

According to him, NDIC has already commenced the process of disposing of the physical buildings and also set the process in motion to make sure that we recover the loans and advances that were granted to the bank.

”That is what we use in paying those liquidation dividends.

“We are not going to wait until we recover everything, no.

“As we recover, we will also advertise to say that we will pay liquidation dividends so that concerned depositors will be on the lookout for alerts in their accounts,” Mr Hassan said.