Bank executives to face prosecution for malpractices

27.12.2007

The House of Representatives Committee on Capital Market on Wednesday in Abuja promised to prosecute any bank executive found to be involved in unethical practices.

Chairman of the committee, Alhaji Aliyu Wadada, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that any bank discovered to be engaged in any form of malpractice would also be sanctioned for criminal breach of trust.

The committee and its counterpart on Banking and Currency, were on December 13 mandated by the House to investigate alleged sharp practices by some commercial banks.

The committees were specifically directed to probe the reasons behind the frequent Initial Public Offers (IPOs) issued by the commercial banks in spite of the recent shoring up of the capital base of the country’s banks to N25 billion.

The House’ directive followed the adoption of a motion by Wadada which raised suspicions on the N25 billion capitalisation claims by some banks.

He noted that some banks had, after the re-capitalisation exercise, conducted public offers three times.