Stanbic IBTC Subsidiary Drops Bureaux De Change Licence

By Dipo Olowookere

The Bureaux De Change (BDC) arm of Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, Stanbic IBTC Bureau De Change Limited, has relinquished its operating licence.

The financial services giant disclosed in a notice on Wednesday that its child company dropped the licence from January 1, 2020, due to the new policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on diaspora remittances.

The CBN had last month said banks in the country were free to pay beneficiaries of payments from abroad in the currency of the sender’s country.

As a result, Stanbic IBTC said there was no need to continue to operate Stanbic IBTC BDC when its customers could receive forex from Stanbic IBTC Bank branches across the country.

In the statement, Stanbic IBTC said it would transform its BDC arm to offer other business venture in the near future, noting that stakeholders would be duly notified when all engagements have been concluded in this regard.

“Stanbic IBTC Holdings wishes to announce that its BDC subsidiary, Stanbic IBTC Bureau De Change Limited has discontinued its BDC business with effect from January 1, 2021, by relinquishing its operating license,” a part of the statement said.

Before the new policy by the CBN last year, banks usually paid foreign remittances in Naira, making customers to use other means to wire their funds back home, causing the value of the Naira to depreciate at the FX market.

But with this new development, the local currency has gained value, though not much, trading flat at the BDC segment at N395/$1 for months.

Stanbic IBTC has been one of the major channels foreign investors trust for capital importation into the country. The group’s largest shareholder is the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the world’s largest bank, with a 20.1 per cent shareholding.

Also, Standard Bank Group and ICBC share a strategic partnership that facilitates trade deals between Africa, China and select emerging markets.