By Aduragbemi Omiyale

The KPMG 2022 Nigeria Banking Industry Customer Experience (CX) Survey has rated Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc high in retail and corporate banking in the country.

According to the report, Stanbic IBTC Bank occupied the first position with a 73.8 CX score out of 100 in the retail segment and sustained the leading position for the second consecutive year. Time and effort are the drivers of performance in the retail category, and the bank outperformed its peers in this regard.

Stanbic IBTC Bank, which held the top position in the retail and SME segments last year, performed well across key customer journey areas, particularly in resolution – a key area of improvement for the industry where customers rate banks on timeliness and quality of feedback on issues as well as the ability and ease of reporting issues and concerns.

Other customer journey areas where Stanbic IBTC Bank came tops included discovery – the ease of getting information about the bank coupled with professional and friendly staff, the ease of account opening with digital-only options and the speedy onboarding process.

Stanbic IBTC Bank is among the top three in transacting – accessibility, timeliness, and quality of service from physical and digital channels, and in account maintenance which covers requests for account statements, general enquiries and updates to account information with accuracy and completeness.

Moving up five places compared to last year’s report, Stanbic IBTC Bank also emerged as this year’s leader in the corporate segment with an 80.9 score out of 100 and received great feedback on the depth of their relationship managers’ knowledge in key sectors.

The report also revealed that Stanbic IBTC successfully closed the gap in digital banking, emerging as a clear leader in the industry.

Speaking on these achievements, the chief executive of Stanbic IBTC Bank, Mr Wole Adeniyi, said, “The primary goal of the bank is to forge lasting relationships with its clients by offering timely, creative, and valuable solutions that benefit them. We are fully committed to serving Nigerians with top-notch financial services.”

According to Mr Adeniyi, “2022 has been remarkable for us at Stanbic IBTC. Asides from these good standings revealed by the KPMG report, the globally renowned credit rating agency, Fitch Ratings, also reaffirmed the retention of our National Long-Term ‘AAA (nga)’ and National Short-Term ‘F1+(nga)’ ratings for the Stanbic IBTC Group and Stanbic IBTC Bank respectively.”

“The National Long-Term ‘AAA (nga)’ and National Short-Term ‘F1+(nga)’ Ratings are the highest possible ratings on Fitch’s rating scale, and we were rated high based on the potential support from our parent company, Standard Bank Group, based in South Africa. We play a vital role in Standard Bank Group’s main operations in West Africa, and we retained our ratings based on our size and high operational integration,” he added.

Fitch Ratings assessed Stanbic IBTC’s strategic importance as the holding company for Standard Bank Group’s leading corporate and investment banking (CIB) and wealth businesses in Nigeria and Stanbic IBTC Bank’s position as an integral part of its Nigerian operations. It also considered Standard Bank Group’s controlling ownership of Stanbic IBTC, high integration of risk management, operations and strategy, shared branding, and Stanbic IBTC’s moderate contribution to Standard Bank Group’s net income.

The ‘AAA (nga)’ is given to issuers with the lowest expectation of default risk when compared with their competitors. The National Short-Term Rating of ‘F1+(nga)’ is assigned to issuers that have a strong capacity for timely payment of financial commitments in comparison to other issuers in Nigeria.

Mr Adeniyi noted that the organisation’s competitive position, good risk profile, healthy funding, and liquidity position also facilitated its upgrade in the Global Credit Ratings (GCR). The national scale long-term issuer rating assigned to Stanbic IBTC Bank PLC was upgraded to AAA(NG) from AA+(NG) and the national scale short-term issuer rating was A1+(NG), indicating a stable outlook and making Stanbic IBTC Bank the only financial institution in Nigeria with the rating.

He attributed the astounding performances of the organisation to the dedication and hard work of its workforce and the tenacity of the firm to continue to play vital roles in Nigeria’s economic development, stating that Stanbic IBTC would not relent in developing sustainable solutions that ensure customers’ delight and the company’s success in the Nigerian financial services spectrum.

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

The cash swap programme of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in rural and underserved areas of the country kicked off on Monday, January 23, 2023, amid mixed feelings.

On October 26, 2022, the Governor of the CBN, Mr Godwin Emefiele, announced that the bank would redesign the N200, N500, and N1,000 notes.

At a special press briefing in Abuja, he further disclosed that the new banknotes would be introduced into the system on December 15, 2022, while by January 31, 2023, all the old notes would have been mopped up from the circulation.

As announced, the new notes hit circulation last month, but instead of banks to stop giving customers the old notes, they are still issued with the currency despite having about a week to the deadline.

This raised doubts about the feasibility of the deadline, especially when Nigerians in the rural areas were yet to see the redesigned Naira denominations.

In order to reach these people, the central bank launched the cash swap policy, which allows Nigerians to exchange their old notes for new ones.

According to a circular jointly signed over the weekend by the Director of Banking Supervision at the CBN, Mr Haruna Mustafa, and the Director of Payments System Management, Mr Musa Jomoh, the initiative was to reach rural communities in Nigeria.

Under this programme, an agency will “exchange a maximum of N10,000 per person, as the amount above this would be treated as a cash-in deposit into wallets or bank accounts in line with the cashless policy, BVN, NIN or voter’s card details of the customers should be captured as much as possible.”

The CBN said to promote financial inclusion, “this service is also available to anybody without a bank account. Agents may, on request, instantly open a wallet or account, leveraging the CBN Tiered KYC Framework. This will ensure that this category of the populace is able to exchange or deposit their cash seamlessly without taking unnecessary risk or incurring undue cost.”

For accountability, the agent would be required to “render weekly returns to their designated banks regarding the cash swap transactions. DMBs shall, in turn, render same to the CBN on a weekly basis.”

Reports gathered by Business Post indicate that this policy was a mixed bag on its first day.

In the Igbo Egun area of Abeokuta, Ogun State, this newspaper was informed that residents of this community are still in the dark about the redesigned Naira notes, while a few of the Ilogbo community in Ado-Odo/Otta in Ogun State, and those in the Ishefun, Olayemi, Igesu, Olorunisola areas of Ayobo, Lagos, have seen the new notes and are optimistic of having their cash swapped for the new notes before the deadline.

By Adedapo Adesanya

As part of the plans to curb the spread of loan shark activities in the country, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has approved the operations of 94 digital money lenders in Nigeria.

From the cache of companies, the commission stated that only 49 of the digital lenders were given full approval, while the remaining 45 got conditional approval.

The agency disclosed this in an update on its ongoing registration of digital money lenders in the country.

Nigerians have been the target of unlicensed loan apps, otherwise known as loan sharks., which has brought disgrace and threat to unsuspecting users.

FCCPC said it came up with the Limited Interim Regulatory/Registration Framework and Guidelines for Digital Lending in collaboration with the Joint Task Force (JTF) to promote fair, transparent, and beneficial alternative lending opportunities for Nigerians.

The guidelines require digital lenders to register with the FCCPC and complete two forms; Form DLG 001 and Form DLG 002. Form DLG OO1 is the registration form that requires the applicant company to provide identification and operational information to the FCCPC, while Form DLG 002 contains declarations relating to legitimacy; compliance with applicable regulatory requirements; lawful source of funds and conformity with anti-money laundering; and data protection laws.

Recall that the commission had last year given all the digital money lenders 90 days to comply with these guidelines; it later extended the deadline, which expired on November 14, 2022, to January 31, 2023.

This is a list of the 49 digital money lenders that have secured full approval from the FCCPC:

SYCAMORE INTEGRATED SOLUTIONS LIMITED

TRADE DEPOT

TAJOW INVESTMENT

BLUE RIDGE MICROFINANCE BANK LIMITED

GROLATECH CREDIT LIMITED

BRANCH INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL SERVICES LIMITED

P2VEST TECHNOLOGY LIMITED

CREDITWAVE FINANCE LIMITED

KEENEST TECH SERVICE LIMITED

FAIRMONEY MICRO FINANCE BANK

ALTRACRED FINANCE INVESTIMENT LIMITED

CREVANCE CREDIT LIMITED

MENACRED COMPANY LIMITED

AFROWIDE DEVELOPMENT LTD

RED PLANET NIGERIA LIMITED

AFROFIRST MOBILE AND TECHNOLOGY COMPANY LIMITED

RANKCAPITALS LIMITED

IBS GOLDEN INVESTMENT COMPANY LIMITED

LENDVISERY SERVICES LIMITED

CREDITWAVE FINANCE LIMITED

RENMONEY MICROFINANCE BANK LIMITED

SWIPEBILL TECHNOLOGIES NIGERIA LIMITED.

HOMETOWN FINTECH LIMITED

GIASUN TECHNOLOGY NIGERIA LIMITED

BE RESOURCES LIMITED

ROCKIT LENDERS NIGERIA LIMITED

PIVO TECHNOLOGY LIMIED

YES CREDIT COMPANY LIMITED

FUBRIL CENTURY LIMITED

IRORUN TECHNOLOGIES LIMITED

CSENSE LIMITED

SUPREME HELP COOPERATIVE SOCIETY LIMITED

ORCOM AND ORCOM BUSSINESS SUPORT LIMITED

PAYHIPPO LIMITED.

EASYCHECK FINANCE INVESTMENT LIMITED

QUARK FINANCIAL NIGERIA LIMITED

EDMOND SOLUTIONS COMPANY LIMITED

TED ROCKET LIMITED

PENAID LIMITED

ARVE LIMITED

DOVER CREDIT LIMITED

RAGEKAY GLOBAL INVESTMENT LIMITED

MAYWOOD LENDING LIMITED

LINKPARK TECHNOLOGY NIGERIA LIMITED

MANGNET LENDING LIMITED

RUBYSTAR GLOBAL LIMITED

BESTFIN NIGERIA LIMITED

FUBRI CENTURY COMPANY LIMITED

BERLY SPRING GLOBAL LIMITED.

These 45 companies have secured conditional approvals from the commission. This means that they still have some requirements to meet before they can get the full approval:

TRIPPDBASE LIMITED

BLACKCOPPER SERVICE

OWOAFAR FINTECH SERVICE

PAYLATER HUB

WINDVILLE FINANCIAL NIGERIA LIMITED

AFROFIRST MOBILE AND TECHNOLOGY COMPANY LIMITED

ORCOM AND ORCOM BUSINESS SUPPORT LIMITED

OTP INTERNET TECHNOLOGY LTD

RED HARBOR FINTECH LIMITED

BERYL SPRING GLOBAL LIMITED

HOMETOWN FINTECH LIMITED

AJAX LENDING LIMITED

RACEOVA NIG. LIMITED

LANTANA TECHNOLOGY LIMITED

THE PLATFORM DIGITAL NETWORK LIMITED

ZIPPY CAPITAL LIMITED

NEO-LINK TECHNOLOGY LIMITED

TRIPOBASE LIMITED

BESTFIN NIGERIA LIMITED

POCKETFUEL FINANCE LIMITED

LENDING EDGE LIMITED

TED ROCKET LIMITED

PENAID LIMITED

ALTARA CREDIT LIMITED

NEW CREDAGE NIGERIA LIMITED

LENDHA TECHNOLOGIES LIMITED

DOJA LEMAIRE GLOBAL LIMITED

PAYDAYHUB ONLINE NIGERIA LIMITED

RETAIL BOOSTER LIMITED

FINNEW FINTECH LIMITED

FEZOTECH NIGERIA LIMITED

ORANGE LOAN & PURPLE CREDIT LIMITED

CITADELE CAPITALS LIMITED

FEWCHORE FINANCE COMPANY LIMITED

A1 CAPITAL SOLUTION LIMITED

ONE PAYOUT LIMITED

LINKPARK TECHNOLOGY NIGERIA LIMITED

LIDYA GLOBAL LIMITED

PHOENIX PAYMENT SOLUTIONS LIMITED

RED PLANET NIGERIA LIMITED

KWABA INTERNATIONAL LIMITED.

MAYWOOD LENDING LIMITED.

PRINCEPS CREDIT SYSTEM LIMITED

LINKPARK TECHNOLOGY NIGERIA LIMITED

FINPADI TECHNOLOGIES LIMITED.