How 15 DMBs recorded N4.47tr shareholder’s funds
No less than 15 Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) operating in the country recorded a whopping N4.47 trillion shareholder’s funds in 2016.
The underlying commercial banks in an effort at enhancing the quality and ensuring financial system stability in the country, reported an increase in their shareholders funds from N3.99trillion reported in 2015,this was increased by 11.7 per cent or N471 billion in the year under review.
For instance, Zenith Bank Plc and First Bank of Nigeria Holdings Plc led13 other commercial banks to report N4.47 trillion in shareholder’s funds in 2016, as the Tier-1 commercial bank (Zenith) has the highest shareholder’s funds in the banking industry, followed by First Bank Holdings Plc and Eco Transnational Incorporated Plc.
In our fact findings, we noticed that most of the Tier-1 banks shareholder’s funds crossed the N300 billion mark while Union Bank of Nigeria and Diamond bank Plc, are two Tier-2 banks with shareholder’s funds that crossed the N200 billion threshold in total equity last year.
The breakdown revealed that Zenith Bank’s shareholder’s funds rose by 18.5 per cent to N704 billion in 2016 from N594.35 billion in 2015 while FBN Holdings reported 0.6 per cent from N578.8 billion in 2015 to N582.6 billion in 2016.
For Eco Transnational Incorporated, its shareholder’s funds rose by 6.9 per cent to N502.9 billion in 2016 from N538 billion recorded in 2015.
However, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc (GTBank) and Access Bank Plc shareholder’s funds grew by 22.1 per cent and 23.6 per cent respectively. GTBank shareholder’s funds moved from N413.56 billion in 2015 to N504.9 billion in 2016 while Access Bank’s shareholder’s funds hits N454.49 billion in 2016 from N367 billion in 2015.
Meanwhile, the United Bank for Africa (UBA) shareholder’s funds edged up from N332.6 billion in 2015 to N448 billion in 2016, representing an increase of 34.7 per cent.
It is however, worthy of note that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in 2007 proposed a maximum shareholder’s funds of N100 billion for banks operating in the country from N3billion.
Under the new regime that replaced universal banking; three tiers of banks are to come into effect with the lowest shareholder’s funds – N15 billion – set aside for those classified as regional banks.
According to the classification, banks with the maximum shareholder’s funds could operate internationally while national banks whose operations are confined to the country will be required to have N25 billion.
On the other hand, regional banks which are allowed to operate in a minimum of five and a maximum of 10 contiguous states are required to have N15 billion.
Tier-2 Commercial Banks shareholder’s funds
Union Bank of Nigeria Plc’s shareholder’s funds closed 2016 at N271.7 billion, 10 per cent above N246.8 billion recorded in 2015, while Diamond Bank’s shareholder’s funds moved from N214 billion in 2015 to N226.7 billion in 2016.
First City Monument Bank Group shareholder’s funds increased by 10 per cent to N178.87 billion in 2016 from N162.39 billion in 2015.
Fidelity Bank Plc’s shareholder’s funds up by one per cent to N185 billion from N183.5 billion in 2015 while Stanbic IBTC Holdings shareholder’s funds rose by 9.5 per cent from N128.6 billion in 2015 to N140.8 billion in 2016.
Furthermore, Sterling Bank shareholder’s funds dropped by 10.4 per cent from N95.6 billion in 2015 to N85.66 billion in 2016.
Also, Wema Bank’s shareholder’s funds added 5.2 per cent to N48.47 billion from N46.06 billion while Unity Bank’s shareholder’s funds moved to N83 billion from N82.57 billion in 2015.
But Jaiz Bank, who just listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) recorded the lowest shareholder’s funds but gained 28.9 per cent from N11.4 billion in 2015 to N14.7 billion in 2016.
