Sunday 22 September 2013

Access Bank Explains Acquisition of Intercontinental



Access Bank Plc has explained that its recent acquisition of the defunct Intercontinental Bank Plc was necessitated by the need to protect the latter’s depositors from losing their funds as well as prevent an imminent crisis in the financial market. Speaking in Abuja over the weekend at a customers’ forum, Group Deputy Managing Director, Access Bank, Mr. Herbert Wigwe further stressed that the successful completion of the deal had demonstrated the bank’s competence with regards to merger and acquisition.
He said but for the informed decision to acquire the bank, it would have taken between five to 10 years before the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) settles depositors of Intercontinental Bank. According to him: “We have shown very strong skills as far as merger and acquisition is concerned. People would wonder why this is relevant. In 2009 during the financial crisis, one of the thing that led us to do what we did in Intercontinental Bank was the fact that if we left the market to continue in the manner in which it was going to happen, and to have such a significant enterprise collapse it would have meant so much to depositors. Continuing, he said: “Because it means that people would have been queuing up behind the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation for five to ten years after only to collect their deposit. “But we felt that we have to do it to support the market in which we do business but more importantly as Nigerians, we felt if we did it right we are going to help our own country even though we too would have benefited from it, but we would have had a lot more to lose if anything had gone wrong.” He said Access Bank had grown from its ninth position in the industry in 2005 to the fourth largest bank in 2012 according to balance sheet size.
Wigwe promised the customers that going forward, the bank would deliver quality and efficient services that serve as a reference point in the industry.
He said the bank had identified 14 segments in the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises sector where funding would be improved upon.

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