National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net
Business Courage
Monday, November 26, 2012
A21 37
CBN approves FSDH’s merchant bank licence
T
he Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has given final approval to First Securities Discount House Limited (FSDH) to operate as a merchant bank. With this, First Securities Discount House Limited will convert from operating as a discount house to operating as a merchant bank. FSDH in a statement said, “In continuation of the company’s tradition as a pioneer in the finance industry, FSDH has become one of the first merchant banks to be awarded a licence in Nigeria since the repeal of Universal Banking by CBN in 2010.” Since March 1993 when FSDH began operations as the first discount house in Nigeria, the company has become a financial services group focussed on delivering expert financial services to its select clientele, thereby assisting them in achieving their financial goals. In order to retain the brand
essence and strong brand equity, the company has decided to adopt the name, FSDH Merchant Bank Limited. FSDH is excited by this development as it will enable the company to offer a broader range of services to its clients thereby deepening its client relationships and expanding its frontiers. Whilst the company does not underestimate the challenges that it will face, it is however confident that with its Corporate Culture of Customer Orientation, High Performance, Image Building, Collaboration and Learning, all obstacles that may come its way can be surmounted. “FSDH is particularly grateful to the Central Bank of Nigeria, in respect of this approval and believes that this is a strong indication of the apex bank’s belief in the company’s capabilities. “FSDH would like to seize this opportunity to welcome its stakeholders to the continued
experience with FSDH Merchant Bank Limited.” The FSDH Group is a financial services supermarket that delivers expert financial services in the Nigerian Financial markets, to its select clientele (corporate and individual), thereby assisting them in creating long term sustainable wealth. The FSDH group consists of four companies all which all engage in the provision of investment management services in different segments of the Nigerian financial markets. The group started with First Securities Discount House Limited (FSDH) in 1993 as the first discount house in the country. FSDH’s activities were later expanded to include capital market services through Counters Trust Securities Limited (CTSL) in 1995. CTSL was later acquired as a full fledged subsidiary in 2004 and BC in 2007 the name was changed to FSDH Securities Limited.
Is Skye Bank crawling behind technology?
O
ne of the beauties of using Automated Teller Machine (ATM) is the inbuilt security camera to safeguard the customers and expose activities of fraudsters. The first is an obvious camera that is set up on top or very close to the ATM machine. The second is a hidden camera installed inside the ATM machine itself to allow it to capture the facial features of the customer. The hidden camera will do a great job at identifying potential hackers and thieves who try to break into the machine or try to force others into giving them their money using the ATM machine. Even though those two cameras do different things, their combined footage tell a more complete story and tend to make bank investigations a lot smother. Despite all these embedded security features, it is very disheartening that some financial institutions still fail to make use of this advantage to propel their investigation in dealing with ATM thieves. Mystery Shopper found Skye Bank Plc a culprit in this wise. An aged customer of Skye Bank at its Iwo Road Branch, Ibadan with account number 1051414504 told Mystery Shopper how he observed that unknown person has been withdrawing from his savings account through the ATM machine. According to him, the incident happens on August 10, 2011. He reported immediately to the customer care section of the same branch and he was asked to deactivate his ATM card of which he responded immediately. He later observed
Kehinde Durosimi-Etti -- Skye-bank MD
from the statement of account that he has lost over N300, 000 to the strange person. Having realized this, he made a request for details and images of withdrawals on his account through the bank manager. The bank promised two weeks to make the images available after paying appropriate charges but to his amazement, he was asked to make another request after waiting for more than three months. He made the second request on December 2, 2011 and up till now, the bank is yet to attend to his request. Curiously, however, while the bank has found it difficult to attend to this request, the same unknown person that has been drawing from the account, and which the bank was long placed on record still requested for a new ATM card through the same branch on the same account and was issued. “When I noticed this, I concluded in my mind that an insider might be responsible for it” he told Mystery Shopper. Further findings by Mystery Shopper on the issue revealed that the original account holder had personally sent two
different complaint letters to the head office of Skye Bank in Lagos to intervene on his behalf but all to no avail. What is particularly worrisome in this case is why the bank appears so unwilling to step in and address a genuine customer complaint, whose hard earned money is being pilfered through what looks like an insider related arrangement. Besides, why has the management of the bank found it extremely difficult to make the image that would reveal the identity of the person drawing the money available for the account holder even after stipulated charges were fully paid for the service on two occasions? Why should the bank collect money from innocent customer for the service it could not render? Will it be right to say that the bank already recognizes the identity of the withdrawal and was only trying to cover things up? Or better still, could the unfolding scenario be that Skye Bank’s information technology platform lacks merit to handle such case? Investigations from other financial institutions show that such services should ordinarily not exceed four weeks from the first day of application. This has taken Skye Bank almost one year, yet, nothing concrete is forthcoming. It is high time the management of Skye Bank rose up to their responsibilities improve on their IT and consistently monitors activities of their branches outside Lagos. This certainly is unacceptable and something must be done fast about it. BC
Market Indicators for Week Ended 23-11-12 All-Share Index 26,322.18 points Market Capitalisation N8,380,569,447,045 Stock Updates GAINERS COMPANY
OPENING PRICE
CLOSING PRICE
CHANGE
CUTIX
1.45
1.52
IKEJAHOTEL
0.94
0.98
4.83 4.26
UNITYBANK
0.50
0.52
4.00
JAPAULOIL
0.53
0.55
3.77
ACCESS
8.71
9.01
3.44
LOSERS COMPANY
OPENING PRICE
CLOSING PRICE
CHANGE
FIDSON
1.07
1.01
-5.61
ETERNA
1.60
1.52
-5.00
TRANSEXPRESS
3.07
2.92
-4.89
EVANSMED
1.32
1.26
-4.55
RTBRISCOE
1.48
1.42
-4.05
Inter-Bank Rates TENOR
RATE%(PREV) 15-Nov-2012
RATE%(CURR) 22-Nov-2012
CALL
10.5000 – 12.7500
10.2000 – 10.5000
OBB
10.2500 – 12.9300
10.2000 – 10.5000
Primary Market Auction TENOR
AMOUNT (N’mn)
RATE (%)
40536.7
91-Days
30647.81
12.40
21-Nov-12
45000
12.45
21-Nov-12
182-Days
12.50
DATE
364-Days
21-Nov-12
Open Market Operation TENOR
AMOUNT (N’mn)
84-Days
80,000
13.50
RATE (%)
22-Nov-12
DATE
98-Days
70,000
13.56
22-Nov-12
83-Days
50,000
13.95
09-Nov-12
Wholesale Dutch Auction System AMOUNT OFFERED
AMOUNT SOLD
DATE
$200m
MARKET DEMAND $200m
$200m
21-Nov-12
$2000m
$200m
$200m
19-Nov-12