The Nation Newspaper

Tag: SKYE BANK

  • Skye Bank, Stanbic, five others miss earnings deadline

    Skye Bank, Stanbic, five others miss earnings deadline

    Seven companies have formally admitted their inability  to conclude the audit of their accounts for the immediate past business year in line with the regulatory timeline of three months after the end of the business year.

    Post-listing rules at the NSE require quoted companies to submit their earnings reports, not later than three months after the expiration of the period. Most quoted companies including banks, major manufacturers, oil and gas companies, breweries and cement companies use the 12-month Gregorian calendar as their business year. The business year thus terminates on December 31.

    NSE’s regulatory filing calendar indicates that the deadline for submission of annual report for companies with Gregorian calendar business year, which ended on December 31, 2015, was Thursday, March 31.

    They have, therefore, filed regulatory notice that they were unable to meet the earnings deadline. The companies included Diamond Bank; Skye Bank; Stanbic IBTC Holdings; Learn Africa; Oando; NPF Microfinance Bank and Cadbury Nigeria.

    The management of Oando Plc at the weekend said it had worked diligently with its external auditor, Ernst & Young (EY) to ensure a swift conclusion of the audit process but after reviewing the financials, EY indicated that the accounts may likely need to be referred to the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRC) pursuant to Rule 5 of the recently publicised FRC Rules.

    Oando stated that it expected the process to be concluded on or before May 31, this year though this is dependent on the completion of the external review process.

    “The company’s management would also like to bring to the attention of its shareholders and the investor community that the accounts of the company at full year 2015 will be in line with its third quarter 2015 performance. The expected decline is attributable to the industry’s downturn, prevalent economic headwinds, as well as fiscal and monetary restrictions driven by a challenging macro environment,” Oando stated.

    Diamond Bank stated that it had completed the auditing of its accounts and submitted the approved accounts and report to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The apex bank has not completed the review of the accounts.

    Learn Africa said the delay in the submission of its accounts was due to the need to manually verify a large part of the sales figure during the year due to a technical hitch in its book sales software package. Learn Africa plans to submit its report by April 12, 2016.

    Skye Bank said its earnings report was delayed by the additional external audit work that arose from its merger with Mainstreet Bank Limited in 2015.

    “Prior to the merger, the two banks operated as separate entities for five months of the financial year, each operating on different information technology platforms and firms of External Auditors. The foregoing has necessitated additional external audit work on the part of the surviving audit firm, being the first post–merger period,” Skye Bank stated.

    Besides monetary sanctions, NSE tags and applies fines on companies that fail to meet earnings reports’ deadline. The NSE however can grant waiver and extension of submission deadline to a company under special consideration.

    Under the corporate governance and rules compliance assessment report known as X-Compliance Report, NSE identified four different kinds of tags or symbols to alert investors about the status of each quoted company. These include below listings standard (BLS), the first degree alert level indicating a company that has not complied with post listing rules such as late submission of financial statements, unauthorized publication, management failures among others.

    Also, financial services companies such as bank and insurance companies awaiting regulatory approval will carry the appropriate symbol of awaiting regulatory approval (ARA). Companies that are undergoing a capital reconstruction exercise including supplementary issue, share buyback, split, share reconstruction among others will be tagged with capital reconstruction exercise (CRE) while companies that have indicated that they will be delisting or companies that are being delisted at the instance of the regulator would be flagged with delisting in process (DIP) symbol.

  • Skye Bank, Nasarawa partner to block financial leakages

    Skye Bank, Nasarawa partner to block financial leakages

    Skye Bank Plc and Nasarawa State government are partnering in the implementation of a biometric and verification  that would save the state N990 million annually from financial leakages.

    The bank’s Executive Director, Abuja and Northern Directorate, Idris Yakubu, who disclosed this at the weekend in Lafia while presenting the report of the biometric and verification to Governor Umaru Al-Makura, said the exercise would save the state about N82.5 million monthly.

    Yakubu said the report, when implemented, would go a long way in blocking leakages and save funds that can be applied to initiatives and ventures that will help create more job opportunities for youths in the state.

    According to the bank director, the recommendations in the report would be useful in the effective management of the scarce resources accruing to the state. “This project, Your Excellency, is a demonstration of the commitment of Skye Bank Plc in supporting the socio-economic development of Nasarawa State and the government of His Excellency, Governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura,” Yakubu said.

    He gave the objectives of the exercise, which involved all workers of the state and local government areas, the state Universal Basic Education Board employees and pensioners, to include the verification of all persons on the state payroll, capture the basic biometric details of civil servants and workers including the pensioners.

    Responding, Governor Al-Makura thanked Skye Bank for a good job and promised that the report would be implemented to block leakages and stop wastages in public expenditure.

  • ‘Skye Bank didn’t breach TSA rule’

    Skye Bank Plc has refuted reports alleging that its Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Timothy Oguntayo, was invited by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over a Treasury Single Account (TSA) amounting to N6.5 billion.

    In a statement, the bank said there were some reports that its CEO was invited by the EFCC in connection with a Presidential Implementation Committee (PIC) account, which was closed in October 2015.

    Oguntayo, however, said during an interactive session with some customers that the balance in the Presidential Implementation Committee’s account was returned to the TSA with Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in October last year after the committee had completed its assignment.

    Oguntayo said the PIC account was closed immediately after the money was moved to the CBN, wondering why and where the information came from.

    “Let me state that as at the time of the said online reports, neither I, nor the Chief Compliance Officer of the bank, had received any such invitation. But importantly, the balances in the said PIC account had since been moved to the CBN in compliance with the TSA on October 2, 2015 and the account closed,” he said.

    Oguntayo said the bank does not maintain any account nor hold any funds belonging to the PIC, saying that the bank was ever ready to provide full information regarding the said account to any security agency including the EFCC.

    “As a bank, we are law-abiding citizens and are willing at any time, to honour any invitation from the law enforcement Agencies,” he said.

    The Skye Bank boss assured stakeholders, especially the bank’s customers and the general public, that the bank would continue to operate transparently at all times and uphold the valued tenets of corporate best practices in its dealings.

  • Skye Bank’s CEO advocates investment in manufacturing

    Skye Bank’s CEO advocates investment in manufacturing

    Group Managing Director/CEO of Skye Bank Plc, Timothy Oguntayo, has called for massive investment in the manufacturing, agriculture and extractive industries for the success of the diversification program of the government.

    He spoke during  a ‘Roundtable session on the Manufacturing outlook for 2016’ organised by the Dr. Biodun Adedipe led BAA Associates in Lagos.

    Oguntayo, who was Lead panelist at the roundtable; said he has identified three sectors that are critical to the success of the economic diversification agenda of the government in view of the dwindling oil prices, low GDP growth, and rising unemployment in the country.

    He said hitherto, the manufacturing sector contributed 10 per cent of Gross Domestic Product before the advent of oil boom of the 1970s, but lamented Nigeria’s overdependence on oil export and earnings from the 1990s to date.

    He said the over dependence on oil resulted in the neglect of the manufacturing sector; just as low investment in public goods and infrastructure led to the decline in manufacturing activities.

    To reverse the negative trend, he recommended the expansion of public infrastructure like road, electricity, among others to promote manufacturing. In addition, he advised manufacturers to access the earmarked N200 billion Central Bank of Nigeria and N200 billion Bank of Industry’s intervention funds to boost their operations.

    Noting that commercial banks were not structured to provide long term funding but bridge finance, he said the Bank of Industry and NEXIM Bank should be strengthened to provide long term funding for manufacturers.

  • Skye Bank, ChamsMobile win best mobile money award

    Skye Bank Plc and Chams Mobile have jointly won the ‘Best Mobile money/Card combination in Nigeria’ award for their joint development and activation of the Kegow Visa virtual card.

    The award was presented to the winning organisations at the Kalahari Awards 2016 during the sixth Remittance and Mobile Money Conference, which took place in Lagos at the weekend.

    The organisers of the awards, Kalahari Awards, commended both Chams Mobile and Skye Bank for partnering to develop an innovative and revolutionary virtual card to ease payment for transactions as well as facilitate e-commerce.

    The Kalahari Awards which brought together mobile money operators and card services providers from across Africa seeks to appreciate and honour operators that have distinguished themselves in the industry for their game-changing innovations.

    The innovative and Nigeria’s first Kegow Visa Virtual Card is an innovation from ChamsMobile and Skye Bank Plc, developed in association with technical and joint venture partners, Bancore, Global Technology Partners and Chams Plc.

    It’s unique in that customers actually get the Kegow Visa card image on their phones, tablets and PCs. A physical card can also be obtained if required. The card is linked to a wide range of financial services, enabling secure online payments, sending money to bank accounts, paying bills and much more.

    The virtual Visa card is an entirely digital payment card for online and mobile use, both locally and internationally. The card is unique in that cardholders get a full card image (the Virtual card) on their mobile device, PC, or tablet, with a plastic card offered as an option if customers prefer.

    Managing Director, Chams Mobile, Mr. Brian Larsen, said that he was excited to partner with Skye Bank and Visa on this unique and ‘First in Nigeria’ Visa Virtual Card payment solution, which was developed with the company’s international joint venture partners Bancore AS (as the Mobile financial services processor) and Global Technology Partners (as the Visa prepaid card processor).

  • Skye Bank, COPE Foundation partner

    Skye Bank, COPE Foundation partner

    Skye Bank Plc and COPE Foundation will be unveiling a book on cancer as well as creating screening centres where members of the public can be screened.

    The programme is in commemoration of this year’s World Cancer Day.

    The book titled, ‘Breast Cancer Facts’ was written to enlighten and educate members of the public about the disease, its treatment and management with a view to reducing the incidence of the scourge.

    In a statement, the bank said breast cancer screening will also be carried out today to provide opportunity for women to know their status and take appropriate steps to prevent it or treat it.

    It said the collaboration between the two organisations over the years has resulted in significant breast cancer awareness and screening opportunity for many women, including those who ordinarily would not have been able to afford the cost of screening.

    The partnership has also been responsible for the monthly breast cancer screening for women by COPE Foundation for many years.  It would be recalled that Skye Bank donated two modern cancer screening machines to the foundation to enable it carry out its mandate of providing opportunity to reduce breast cancer incidence and provide information and education to the groups that are prone to it.

    The bank said the two organisations are working to provide opportunity for mobile screening for those who are far flung from where the Foundation’s operations are conducted.

    Last year, the bank sponsored a 10 kilometre walk in two locations in Lagos in which over 2000 people t partibipated to further create awareness about the disease and encourage people to exercise as a means of preventing it.

  • N50 stamp duty: No banks will profit from it, says Skye Bank boss

    N50 stamp duty: No banks will profit from it, says Skye Bank boss

    Contrary to insinuations in some quarters, the Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Skye Bank Plc, Mr. Timothy Oguntayo, has declared that deposit money banks (DMBs) are not expected to make any profit from the N50 stamp duty levy imposed on bank customers by the federal government.

    He made this clarification during a breakfast luncheon with top stockbrokers and allied professionals in Lagos.

    It would be recalled that the federal government had on Tuesday mandated the Central Bank of Nigeria to collect N50 stamp duty from customers for money received into their accounts.

    According to the apex bank, “As part of efforts to boost its revenue base, the federal government of Nigeria is exploring revenue opportunities in the non-oil sectors especially taxes and rates. It is in recognition of this fact that banks and other financial institutions are enjoined to support government’s revenue drive through compliance with the provisions of the Stamp Duties Act, LFN 2004 as reinforced by the court judgement in Suit No FHC/L/CS/1710/2013.

    “In this regard, the CBN pursuant to the provisions of its enabling laws, hereby issues this circular to all DMBs other financial institutions. With immediate effect, all DMBs and other financial institutions shall commence the charging of N50 per eligible transaction in accordance with the provisions of the Stamp Duties Act and Federal Government Financial Regulations 2009, that is, all receipts given by any bank or other financial institution in acknowledgment of services rendered in respect of electronic transfer and teller deposits from N1, 000 and above.”

    Oguntayo, who gave useful insights on the rationale behind the imposition of the N50 stamp duty, said: “In my own understanding, there is a NIPOST Act that makes it mandatory for customers to pay stamp duty on any transaction they do. As such, the money collected goes directly to NIPOST and not to the banks. The banks are not expected to profit from it.”

    He was however quick to admit that the implementation of the policy means that cost of doing transaction is going to increase.

    The sad part of it, he emphasised, is that the policy is already a fait accompli as the apex bank has since passed the directive to the banks for onward implementation.

    The Skye Bank boss also hinted of plans by the bank to raise fresh capital during the first quarter of 2016 to beef up its capital base and improve its working capital.

    Explaining further, he said its capital adequacy ratio of 15.87 per cent for the bank, out of which 12.4 per cent is covered by common equity, was already in compliance with Basel 11 provisions.

    In addition, Oguntayo said retail banking as the bank’s new business focus would be pursued in 2016 for more traction. In particular, he said the small and medium enterprises (SMEs), small businesses and priority banking would be strengthened.

    Reeling out strides recorded by the bank in 2015, the Skye Bank boss said the board of the bank appointed four new executive directors to the board and has concluded the design of a three-year strategic plan from 2016-2018.

    Besides, he said the bank achieved certification by the British Standard Institution on IT Service management, business continuity and IT management for the integrity of its operations.

  • Skye Bank marks 10 years of operation

    Skye Bank marks 10 years of operation

    Skye Bank Plc. has rolled out the drums to celebrate its 10 years of existence as well as celebrate its customers and employees. The bank was formed after the merger and integration of five legacy banks on January 23, 2006.

    The legacy banks were the erstwhile Prudent Bank Plc., EIB International Bank Plc., Bond Bank Limited, Reliance Bank Limited and Co-operative Bank Plc., all of which came together in 2006 in the wake of the banking industry recapitalization and consolidation programme of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

    The year-long programme of celebration will kick off on Saturday, January 23 with a staff-led thanksgiving outing at the bank’s head office in Lagos, which will hold simultaneously in all its regional offices in Ikeja, Ibadan, Kaduna, Port Harcourt and Abuja.

    The theme of the thanksgiving session is ‘The Skye of possibilities’, with thanksgiving offered in appreciation of God’s divine blessings and grace in the affairs of the bank since it commenced operations 10 years ago.

    Speaking on the milestone, the Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Bank, Mr. Timothy Oguntayo, said the Bank had in its decade of integration and existence, recorded notable achievements and received awards, accolades and recognition at home and abroad.

    Specifically, Oguntayo said the bank now boasts a robust and cutting edge technology and an electronic payment channel acclaimed as among the best in the industry. The bank, he said, has supported many start-ups and nurtured their growth from infancy to publicly quoted companies in addition to several companies it provides funding and facilities to.

    The Skye Bank boss recalled the successful and audacious bid the bank made for erstwhile Mainstreet Bank which it won and paid for in October 2014.

    “In mid-2015, we successfully and seamlessly completed our integration with the acquired institution and harmonized our IT infrastructure, people and processes. Today, we are the fourth largest bank in Nigeria with branch network of over 400 and close to 900 Automated Teller Machines spread across the country”, he said.

    Oguntayo said the expanded branch network would enable the bank to provide convenience and proximity banking to its retail, SME and commercial banking customers, areas where the bank wants to focus on.

    Several anniversary activities targeted at marking the decade of integration of Skye Bank would be unfolded in the days ahead in appreciation of customers, shareholders and other stakeholders for keeping faith with the brand since it appeared on the financial landscape as Skye

  • WorldRemit, Skye Bank offer cash pickup service

    WorldRemit, Skye Bank offer cash pickup service

    WorldRemit, the global money transfer app, has partnered with Skye Bank Plc to offer instant money transfers to Nigerians.

    In addition to its same-day bank transfer service, the financial technology company now allows people to send money to more than 140 cash pickup locations in the country, instantly.

    In a statement, the firm said people in more than 50 countries can use the app to send to Nigeria. Recipients can collect money instantly from 140 branches of Skye Bank.

    It said WorldRemit customers currently send over 400,000 transactions monthly. The technology firm said Nigerians in Diaspora sent home $20.8 billion in 2015, by far the largest volume of remittances to any country in Africa and the 6th largest in the world, according to the World Bank.

    WorldRemit’s Chief Executive Officer& Founder, Ismail Ahmed, said: “Gone are the days of queuing in line at a high-street transfer shop and waiting several days for a money transfer to arrive. At WorldRemit, we offer people a choice of the most convenient ways to send and receive money. Today, Nigerians can use our app or website to send money to a bank account or cash pickup location, instantly.”

    In February 2015, the firm received a $100 million funding round led by Technology Crossover Ventures, early investors of Facebook, Spotify, and Dropbox.

    In June 2015, the technology firm also was recognised by United Nations agency the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) for shaking up the global money transfer industry.

    WorldRemit offers a convenient mobile service and low minimum fees, allowing people to send smaller amounts, more frequently. It said fees for transfers to Nigeria start at 0.95 Euro and 0.99 GBP respectively.

  • Skye Bank to raise new capital in first quarter 2016

    Skye Bank to raise new capital in first quarter 2016

    Skye Bank Plc has started arrangements to raise additional equity funds within the next two and half months as the commercial bank seeks to beef up its capital base and improve its working capital.

    Group managing director, Skye Bank, Mr. Timothy Oguntayo, who disclosed this yesterday at an interactive session with top stockbrokers in Lagos, said the bank had entered into discussions with some of its key shareholders and strategic potential investors for fresh capital injection.

    He expressed optimism that the new capital raising exercise could be completed during the first quarter.

    He however noted that the bank’s capital adequacy ratio of 15.87 per cent, out of which 12.4 per cent is covered by common equity, was already in compliance with Basel 11 provisions.

    He said the bank is shifting its business focus to retail and commercial banking as it enters a new growth phase after the acquisition and integration of erstwhile Mainstreet Bank Limited.

    Oguntayo said retail banking as the bank’s new business focus would be pursued in 2016 for more traction adding that the small and medium enterprises (SMEs), small businesses and priority banking would be strengthened.

    He said the bank has set for itself in the medium to long term, strategies to achieve growth for the good of shareholders and other stakeholder.

    He recalled that in 2015 the board of the bank had appointed four new executive directors to the board; concluded the design of a three-year strategic plan from 2016-2018; achieved certification by the British Standard Institution on IT Service management, business continuity and IT management for the integrity of its operations as part of efforts to strengthen its operations.

    He said the bank had commenced structured capacity building programmes for the SME segment, working with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) on the business model and risk management framework and product innovation for its retail business.

    According to him, other measures taken to strengthen the retail banking business of the bank included retooling the locations acquired from the legacy Mainstreet Bank for the mobilization of cheap low cost funds, enhancement of the electronic channels to support the branch network and intensification of acquisition of customers across the retail segment.

    Oguntayo said the bank had been working on continuous improvement in structure, practices and resource deployment in risk management, adoption of enterprise-wide risk management approach, board oversight on risk portfolio to ensure diversification of risks, as well as vibrant and proactive credit monitoring framework.