FG to prosecute those who caused Skye Bank to fail

The Federal Government has promised to prosecute all those found to be responsible for the failure of erstwhile Skye Bank. The Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed made this known on Friday while on familiarity visit to the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), in Abuja.

The Minister directed the Managing Director/CEO, Umaru Ibrahim to ensure that a thorough investigation is done into the failure of Skye Bank, adding that at the end of the investigations, all those found culpable in the failure of the bank would be prosecuted. “The example of the recently wound-up Skye Bank, now Polaris Bank, is something we will look into. We’re going to hold whoever was responsible for the failure of that bank,” she said.

“We have to show example, we cannot be bailing out banks and leaving perpetrators of the failure of these banks to go scot-free. Even though you intervene by protecting depositors, but your intervention is limited. You’re not able to pay back all that the depositors have”, the minister said.

Ahmed stressed the need for the NDIC to continuously monitor the banks to ensure that problems are detected early and solved before they become crises.

The minister commended the NDIC for adherence to the requirements of the fiscal responsibility act by constantly paying its operational surpluses to the Federal Government. “Within this week, N15 billion was received by the Federal Government and this brings to about N107 billion that NDIC has paid to date,” she said.

Earlier, MD/CEO Umaru Ibrahim briefed the Minister on the achievements and challenges of the NDIC.