NDIC starts refund of funds to Heritage Bank customers

Heritage Bank customers have begun receiving funds from The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) deposited in the bank two weeks after the bank lost its license.

Recall the Central Bank of Nigeria on Monday June 4, revoked the license of Heritage Bank Plc with immediate effect following breaches of banking legislation.

NDIC had said it was going to make payment of deposit insurance coverage claims amounting to a maximum of N5 million to depositors.

Before the regulatory hammer on Heritage Bank, the CBN said the bank had continued to suffer and had no reasonable prospects of recovery, thereby making the revocation of the license necessary.

Heritage Bank is an off shoot of Societe Generale Bank (Nigeria), founded by the late Olusola Saraki in the late 70s.

In January 2006, the Central Bank closed down Societe Generale Bank on account of failure to meet new minimum capital requirements of N25 billion for a national bank. Societe Generale successfully challenged the closure in court.

In 2012, the core investor in Heritage Bank, IEI Plc, through IEI Investments Limited, acquired the Societe Generale Bank of Nigeria license from the Central Bank of Nigeria.