TheCable

Ebenezer Onyeagwu, the new group managing director of Zenith Bank, says banks are planning on a mechanism that will allow them to recover customer loans from deposits made in other banks.

Onyeagwu made this known on Thursday when he paid a courtesy to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) to introduce the bank’s new management.

He said the new loan to deposit ratio policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria would boost economic activities as the loans would develop SMEs.

The CBN had recently mandated all deposit money banks to maintain a minimum loan to deposit ratio of 60% by September 1 or face penalty.

Onyeagwu explained that banks would not be reckless in lending but that the concern had been the attitude of borrowers towards repayment.

“Bank Verification Number (BVN) has helped in solving the problem of identity and the banker’s Committee is working on building stronger capability into that,” NAN quoted him to have said.

“The capability that will enable us to enforce very effective and tight credit control such that if a customer takes a loan from bank A and abandon and go to bank B to open an account, with the BVN, such customer can be traced.

“If the customer is owing bank A, N1 million and goes to bank B to open an account and deposits N2 million, electronically the system will recover the money from the debtor.

“We believe this will help drive decent behaviour and promote good credit process.”

Onyeagwu, who takes over from Peter Amangbo, assured investors of improved dividend and excellent service delivery.

“We will like to assure the market that we will do everything within us to elevate the strong virtues, the values and the superior performance that Zenith Bank has always been known with,” he said.

“Under this new leadership, you will rest assured that we will deliver outstanding performance.

“We will reward our shareholders and will continue to provide very strong and transparent disclosure to the market.”