CBN Order Banks To Publish The Names Of Debtors By The End Of The Month

   According to the CBN, banks and discount houses are required with effect from May 1st 2015, to give the delinquent debtors three months of grace to turn their accounts from non-performing to performing status, after which their names would be published. The delinquent debtors, for both individual and corporate accounts, are those whose accounts have been classified lost and the names include the persons, entities, directors, subsidiaries and other related parties.

    According to the Apex bank, those affected would be banned from participating in the Nigerian foreign exchange market and also from participating in the Nigerian government securities market. Martins had earlier this month said the decision to publish the list of bank debtors was to prevent another banking crisis.

    The central bank director had explained: “The CBN has managed to keep the banking industry safe and sound in collaboration with all members of the Bankers’ Committee. “But some data shows that it is increasingly becoming difficult for some debtors to pay up their loans. So it was decided that going forward, one thing that we may do is to stop them from getting access to foreign exchange. This is to ensure the continuous safety and soundness of the banking industry

    “It is not all debtors, it is the bad and chronic debtors, those ones that have deliberately refused to pay; those are the ones we are talking about. Total loans in the industry are in the region of N13 trillion,” she added.