HERITAGE BANK | WE’VE NO FINANCIAL CRISIS

The management of Her­itage Bank Plc has de­clared that the organi­sation is financially sound and debunked speculations that it was facing a severe crisis.

In a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday, the bank said that its capacity to meet customers’ demands was un­shaken.

It said: “We have and will continue to meet all our obliga­tions to our esteemed custom­ers. As a renowned customer-friendly bank, this is the duty we owe them.”

The management said that the bank’s attention had been drawn to speculations on al­leged crisis within, stressing that there was nothing of such.

The bank said that instead, with its excellent service cul­ture hinged on working with each customer to create a name, “it has continued to renew its pledge to continually provide straight-through and seam­less banking experience, pro­vide accurate and relevant in­formation to its customers and diverse stakeholders.

“We are driven by a set of principles that make us the embodiment of innovation wrapped in modest elegance and knowledge, enabling us to share and lead by example the emergence of a new attitude towards financial services, the people that provide them as well as those that benefit from them,” the statement said.

It recalled the history of the emergence of the bank stating that “in 2012, the seeds of re­birth were sown as we, against all odds, acquired the licence of Societe Generale Bank of Nige­ria (SGBN) from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). These seeds have sprung forth and bore fruit, leading to our emer­gence then as Heritage Banking Company Limited.

“Staying true to our values of integrity and excellence, we offered to return 100 percent of existing SGBN account holders’ funds. However, more than 70 percent of those preferred to continue with the service un­der the leadership of Heritage Banking Company Limited. We successfully returned 100 per­cent of existing SGBN account holders’ funds to their owners as promised, while at the same time meeting, fulfilling and ex­ceeding all required criteria for operations,” the management stated.

In October 2014, Herit­age Banking Company Limit­ed met the requirements of the Asset Management Corpora­tion of Nigeria (AMCON) and the CBN toward owning 100 percent shares in Enterprise Bank Ltd.

On January 27, 2015, AM­CON transferred ownership of Enterprise Bank Ltd to Herit­age Bank.

Accordingly, the bank said speculations to the contrary could be designs by the pro­moters to cause anxiety among its valued customers and disaf­fection among its committed personnel and management.