Friday, November 19, 2010

Operators warn against another banking crisis

While the financial market awaits the issuance of the first series of bonds by the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), the focus is on how the banking industry will fare after the bad debts are taken off their books. Financial market operators spoke of a situation where the regulators still need to keep close watch on the market in order to prevent a reoccurrence.
The target date of the first AMCON bond issuance is December 31 or shortly thereafter, with a N500mn issuance in the first instance.Mike Itegboje, president of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers said the establishment of AMCON is not a guaranty that a similar crisis will not beset the banking sector in future. “Let us move forward in this direction so that it doesn’t happen again,” Mr. Itegboje said.
“Whatever the CBN (Central Bank of Nigeria) is doing, there is no way we will say it can never happen again. Some of the banks that were liquidated some years ago, what lessons have we learnt from them.” He said there may be need to set up a panel of enquiry in order to know the involvement of individuals in the banking crisis in order to guard against a reoccurrence in future. “I pray whatever panel that is set up will not end up like Oputa Panel report.” He said with the lending and borrowing aspect of the bad debt management function of AMCON, there is optimism that the firm will do well.

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