House of Reps to probe Access Bank's acquisition of Intercontinental Bank

The House of Representatives, Wednesday, mandated its committees on Banking,  Currency,  Capital Market and Institutions to investigate the acquisition of the Intercontinental Bank by Access bank.

The decision followed the adoption of a motion by Hon. Yacoob Alebiosu (ACN Lagos) on the circumstances surrounding the acquisition. The House also mandated its committees to examine the roles played by the Asset Management Company of Nigeria, Access Bank and the Interface of the management Team of the Intercontinental Bank in the whole exercise.

The committees are also expected to investigate the involvement of a company allegedly owned by a Director of Access bank; United Alliance Company and report to the House within two weeks. According to  Rep. Alebiosu, the best way to ensure that mergers and acquisitions in the banking sector impacts on the economy ‘it must not only be seen to be devoid of underhand deals, but they must conform to the international best practices and statue and adhering to integrity test in order to prevent avoidable mistakes of the past’.

He noted that in the recent past the lifetime investment and savings of millions of Nigerians was wasted through the ineptitude and flamboyant lifestyle of the management of banks and warn that a preventive approach must be adopted to avoid a repeat of the mistakes of the recent past. The law maker noted that while the Federal Government through AMCON pumped in N650billion into the Intercontinental bank and has only 15% shares of bank, Access Bank put in only N50billion and has controls 75% share of the Intercontinental Bank.

It would be recalled that the Chairman of the House Committee on Capital Market, Rep. Herman Hembe had during the inaugural meeting of his committee announced that the recent acquisition of banks would be investigated because of the plethora of petitions that have trailed them.

Source: Vanguard