The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has transferred a total sum of N72bn from the failed banks to the new banks which acquired them, the Joint Committee of the House of Representatives on Capital Market, Banking and Currency, which investigated trapped funds in failed banks in the country, has said.

This is coming as the joint committees summon major players in the capital market to a public hearing, billed to commence on May 5, with a view to investigating the operations of the market.
According to the report of the joint committee, which would be considered by the House in plenary this week, the current status of the eleven failed banks' deposits to the banks that acquired them is N72b out of the N73b of the banks' private deposit.

The report gave the names of the 11 banks and their deposits as follows: All States Trust Bank, acquired by Ecobank, N22.3bn; Assurance Bank, acquired by Afribank, N6.2b; Lobi Bank, acquired by Afribank, N5.4b; Trade Bank, acquired by UBA Plc, N7.4b; Metropolitan Bank, acquired by UBA Plc, 0.8b; City Express Bank, acquired by UBA Plc N7.8b; Hallmark Bank, acquired by Ecobank N12.0b; Afex Bank, acquired by UBA Plc N1.0b; Eagle Bank, acquired by Zenith Bank N0.9 and another bank, which was not named, but acquired by UBA Plc, N7.9b, amounting to N71.7bn. The report added Liberty Bank, with a deposit of N1.7b, is yet to get a bidder.

The report, signed by the chairmen of the capital market and banking and currency committees, Ahmed Wadada and Ogbuefi Ozomgbachi further said 34 failed banks had a total of N5.2b insured deposits, out of which NDIC paid N3.3b adding "though N109b liquidation dividend was declared on uninsured deposits, NDIC paid N6.1bn to only depositors who made claims."

The report further said that only depositors in the eleven failed merchant banks who made claims were paid in full. The eleven banks listed include ABC Merchant Bank Ltd., Alpha Merchant Bank Plc, Amicable Bank of Nigeria Plc, Continental Merchant Bank Plc, Icon Ltd, Kapital Merchant Bank Ltd., Merchant Bank of Africa Ltd., Nigeria Merchant Bank Ltd., Pan African Merchant Bank Ltd, Premier Commercial Bank Ltd. and Rims Merchant Bank Ltd.

The committee urged NDIC to do more by calling on depositors who are yet to come forward for their deposits. Meanwhile, the committee has summoned major stakeholders in the nation's capital market. According to Ozomgbachi, the summons became necessary because the committee wanted to come up with laws aimed at strengthening the market to meet international standards.

he organisations invited include Securities and Exchange Commission, Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigerian Stock Exchange, 34 publicly quoted banks and other stakeholders.