Heritage Bank: NDIC pays 86% of insured deposits

The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) said Tuesday it has paid 86 per cent of total insured deposits for customers of the recently liquidated Heritage Bank, reiterating that efforts are ongoing to complete the remaining 14%. Managing Director/Chief Executive of the Corporation, Mr Bello Hassan who disclosed this yesterday in Lagos at a retreat for […]

The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) said Tuesday it has paid 86 per cent of total insured deposits for customers of the recently liquidated Heritage Bank, reiterating that efforts are ongoing to complete the remaining 14%.

Managing Director/Chief Executive of the Corporation, Mr Bello Hassan who disclosed this yesterday in Lagos at a retreat for members of the House of Representatives on Insurance and Actuarial Matters said the remaining customers are those whose accounts have posted no debit (PND) instructions by courts or regulatory authorities.

The theme of the retreat hosted by the committee chaired by Rep. Ahmed Usman Jaha was “Strengthening Financial Stability and Deposit Insurance Frameworks for Economic Resilience.”

Hassan represented by the Executive Director, Corporate Services, Emily Osuji reiterated that the recent review of maximum deposit insurance coverage for deposit money banks (DMBs), Payment Service Banks (PSBs) and Mobile Money Operators (MMOs) from N500,000 to N5m followed a 2023 study to determine the adequacy of its deposit insurance coverage.

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“It is worthy to mention that, the revised coverage for the DMBs provides a full coverage for 98.98% of the total depositors and 25.37% of the total value of deposits. Accordingly, the revised coverage provides a full deposit insurance cover for 99.27%, 99.34% and 99.99% of total depositors as well as 34.43%, 21.04%, and 43.10% of the total value of deposit of MFBs, PMBs and PSBs, respectively,” he said.

According to him, timely reimbursement to depositors is key in maintaining financial stability.

“In this regard, the Corporation has reassessed its depositor payment methodology with a view to adopting a different approach that will ensure prompt payments to depositors. This was tested in the recent payment to depositors of Heritage bank in-liquidation. It is instructive to mention that, the Corporation using the Bank Verification Number (BVN) of depositors obtained from Nigeria Inter Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) was able to access alternate accounts of customers and commenced payment to depositors within a record time of four (4) days,” he added.

The House Committee Chairman assured Nigerian depositors of the safety of their deposits in the banking system, saying there is no cause for alarm.