By Dipo Olowookere
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has released names of commercial banks and financial holding companies authorised to operate in the country as at June 30, 2019.
In the list, there are eight banks given the approval to operate outside the shores of the country. Eleven commercial banks have licences to offer financial services across the federation, while two have regional banking licence, with one having non-interest licence across the nation.
Also, five have merchant banking licence with national spread, while only three firms were given the authority to operate as a financial holding company.
Access Bank, Fidelity Bank, FCMB, First Bank GTBank, Union Bank, UBA and Zenith Bank all have the CBN’s approval to have branches outside Nigeria, according to data obtained by Business Post from the central bank.
For banks with national licence, they are Citibank, Ecobank, Heritage Bank, Keystone Bank, Polaris Bank, Stanbic IBTC Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Sterling Bank, Titan Trust Bank, Unity Bank and Wema Bank.
Suntrust Bank and Providus Bank are the only two authorise to operate as regional banks in Nigeria, while Jaiz Bank is the only for national non-interest lender.
The national merchant banks are Coronation Merchant Bank, FBN Merchant Bank, FSDH Merchant Bank, NOVA Merchant Bank and Rand Merchant Bank.
The four financial holding companies recognised by the CBN are FBN Holding Plc, FCMB Holding Plc, FSDH Holding Company and Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc.
