THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012
50
MONEY
• Kramer
• Mansur
• Osindero
• Ulu
• Akande
Dick Kramer leads new Union Bank’s board U
NION Bank of Nigeria (UBN) Plc has further consolidated its widely applauded seamless recapitalisation with the inauguration of a new high-profile board of directors to support the Funke Osibodu-led executive management team. The new Board of Directors, according to a statement from the bank, is chaired by Dick Kramer, chairman of African Capital Alliance and a long-standing finance and economic expert on Nigeria. Other non-executive directors that were appointed at the meeting of the board of directors held at the bank’s head office in Lagos recently included Dr. Yemi Osindero and Dickie Agumba Ulu. Earlier, Mr Mansur Ahmed and Mrs. Nike Akande had been reappointed unto the board at the last board meeting of the bank last year during which all non-executive directors retired with effect from December 31, 2011. The retirement of the prerecapitalisation board and constitution of a new board followed the successful conclusion of the recapitalisation of Union Bank. Union Bank received $500 million capital after fulfilling all regulatory processes and approvals. With the injection of Naira equivalent of $500 million, Union Bank emerged with a capital adequacy ratio of 19 per cent, well above the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) minimum requirement of 10 per cent. The conclusion of the recapitalisation makes Union Bank one of the most capitalised banks and enhances the bank’s competitiveness in the banking industry. The new board with its rich blend of international expertise and domestic knowledge is expected to greatly influence the growth of the bank. This would serve as additional impetus to the globally ac-
• Bank concludes seamless recapitalisation By Taofik Salako
claimed performance-driven of the executive management led by Mrs Funke Osibodu as group managing director and chief executive. Other members of the executive management included Adekunle Mickey Adeosun, Philip Ikeazor, Ibrahim Abubakar Kwargana and Folashodun Adebisi Shonubi. Dick Kramer comes on board with a long track record of achievements in Nigeria and the international markets. Kramer came to Nigeria 34 years ago to launch Arthur Andersen & Company as Managing Partner, following similar roles in Brussels and Buenos Aires. He trained in Accountancy and earned an MBA from Harvard Business School before joining Arthur Andersen in 1958, where he worked in all areas of the firm’s practice and in the US, Latin America, Middle East, Europe, India and Africa. Following his retirement in 1994, Kramer stayed back in Nigeria to consult, invest and continue community service activities. He helped to found the Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG), where he served as pioneer ViceChairman; the Harvard Business School Association of Nigeria (HBSAN), where he served as President; the Lagos Business School, where he is a member of the Advisory Board and Faculty; and more
recently, the American Business Council. Dr. Yemi Osindero, who is from Standard Chartered Private Equity- a shareholder of Union Global Partners Limited, is a dynamic and inspiring business leader, with several years of experience in international investment banking, foreign direct investment and venture capital, coupled with emerging market operational and business development experience. He is the Head of West Africa Private Equity, Standard Chartered Private Equity. Prior to this, he cofounded Virgin Nigeria Airways in 2005 and was Chief Operating Officer and member of its Board of Directors. Before that, he was an Investment Manager with Virgin Management, the holding company of Sir Richard Branson, where he was responsible for financial advisory, mergers and acquisitions, strategy and new business initiatives for various existing Virgin Group companies globally, and the investment evaluation of numerous new ventures to extend the Virgin brand. Also, Dickie Agumba Ulu comes on board with management experience of more than 30 years cutting across professional and industrial experience. He is the Development Consultant to Global Utilities Management Company. He was General Manager, UK,
Nigeria Reinsurance Corporation, London; Managing Partner at DKU Associates, London; and Special Assistant to the Presidential Adviser on National Orientation and Public Affairs, among others. He had also undertaken many national assignments, including Member, Presidential Initiative on National Rebirth Campaign; Zonal Leader (North-West, South-South & South-East), Presidential Forum on Stewardship, Accountability and Youth Development; Chairman, Presidential Review Committee on Streamlining the Functions of Nigerian Film Corporation. Ulu earned a HND (Business Administration) from Farnborough College, Farnborough, Hants, UK; Diploma, Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK; Advanced Certificate (Human Resource Management) from London School of Economics, London; as well as postgraduate Marketing Management (Strategic Planning & Control for Crisis Management) from University of Greenwich, Business School, West Mailing, Kent, London, UK. Mrs. Nike Akande is a former Minister of Industry and President of the Harvard Business School Alumni Association of Nigeria. An Accountant by training, she is a management and business consultant. She attended University of North London (formerly North
‘With the injection of Naira equivalent of $500 million, Union Bank emerged with a capital adequacy ratio of 19 per cent, well above the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) minimum requirement of 10 per cent’
Western Polytechnic, London), where she studied Accountancy. Later, she did her post-graduate programme at the prestigious Harvard Business School, Boston, US, and also attended management courses at Oxford University, UK and International Institute for Management Development, Lausanne, Switzerland. She is a Board Member of NEPAD Business Group of Nigeria, a foundation member of the Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG) and a Member of the African Business Roundtable (ABR). Akande is a Director, PZ Cussons Foundation, Board Member, Bank Directors Association of Nigeria (BDAN), Chairman, Entrepreneurial Studies (AES) Excellence Club, Vice-President of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Honorary Life Vice-President, National Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), and President, Pan-African Organisation for Women Recognition. Mansur Ahmed is currently the Director-General and Chief Executive Officer, Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC). Prior to this appointment, he was the Director General and Chief Executive at the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), a position he assumed in 2004 following his retirement from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). He has a first degree in Mechanical Engineering from Nottingham University and a Masters degree in Industrial Engineering and Administration from Cranfield Institute of Technology (now Cranfield University), both in the UK. He also has a post-graduate certificate in Investment Appraisal and Management of the Harvard Institute of International Development.
CBN to sanction banks for e-clearing breaches
B
ANKS fond of transmitting data not in agreement with the image of the cheques being processed for payment will, henceforth, be sanctioned by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). In a fresh guideline to assist banks clear their cheques electronically, CBN said such defaulting banks may be suspended after three warnings. The CBN said it acted after due consultation with the banks and the increasing need to reduce the timeline for clearing transactions. A circular from the apex bank said financial institutions which present cheques with alteration/ erasures, that are visible under the ultraviolent light, thereby leading to fraud will also be sanctioned. Also, presentation of cheques with irregularity such as stale, postdated, amount in words and figures differ, the presenting and paying bank would be jointly liable to equal loss sharing between the par-
By Collins Nweze ties, where it occurs. However, failure to return an unpaid instrument within the clearing period/window without notice to the presenting bank, paying bank shall be fully liable among other rules. The apex bank said it acted based on powers conferred in it in section 47 of the CBN Act No. 7 of 2007. Here, the CBN was charged with the duty of facilitating the clearing of cheques, credit instruments for banks and for this purpose to organise in conjunction with other banks, clearing houses in such places as it may consider necessary. The regulator said the policy is expected to provide for the regulation and management of cheque truncation (electronic clearing) in the country with the view to reducing cost and days of clearing instruments. It was also meant to articulate the rights and responsibilities of presenting and paying banks
in the Cheque Truncation System. It said the policy will provide minimum technical and operational standards for cheque truncation as well as facilitate the implementation of an effective and efficient payment system in the country. The rules apply to clearing and settlement activities in the Nigeria Bankers Clearing Houses, which practice cheque truncation system. However, where there is a conflict between the provisions of the cheque truncation guidelines and revised Nigeria bankers’ clearing house rules, the former would prevail. e-clearing otherwise known as cheque truncation involves stopping the physical movement of the cheque and replacing the physical instrument with the image of the instrument and the corresponding data contained in Magnetic Character Ink Character Reader (MICR) line. The cheque details are cap-
tured, typically by the bank presenting the cheque or it’s clearing agent and electronically presented in an agreed format to the clearing house for onward delivery to the paying bank for payment. Unlike the more common form of presentment where a cheque is physically presented to the paying bank, a truncated cheque is typically stored by the presenting bank electronically. The cheque is dematerialised by the bank where it was initially presented under a set time. Also, the clearing house acts as an intermediary for data and image flow between the presenting and the paying bank while the Nigeria-Inter Bank Settlement Payment System (NIBSS) is the Central Image warehousing Agency (CIWA) for storage and certification of cheque images. “The paying bank may request for any image from CIWA for the purpose of proof of payment. All
cheques are eligible for cheque truncation subject to value limits that may be imposed by the CBN from time to time. Besides, the minimum retention period of physical cheques is five years. The electronic image shall be retained for a minimum period of 10 years,” the apex bank said. Also, truncation would be mandatory for all banks at a particular centre from a cut-off date as may be determined by the regulator. Also, the cut-over date would be announced well in advance and the participating banks are required to undertake a formal certification test to demonstrate operational readiness for the conversion to cheque truncation. Clearing period under the new rule would allow cheques clear on a T+1 basis such that customers receive value in the morning of T+2 even as the clearing house is also expected to operate three sessions.