CBN, Court approve Heritage, Enterprise banks merger

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has granted final approval for the merger of Heritage Bank and Enterprise Bank.
Furthermore, the Federal High Court has sanctioned the scheme of merger and ordered the merger of both institutions.

“The Management of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has approved the grant of Final Merger Approval to Heritage Banking Company Limited and Enterprise Bank Limited and the licence of HERITAGE BANK LIMITED (the successor), the CBN said in a letter to Heritage Bank.

Managing Director/Chief Executive, Heritage Bank, Mr. Ifie Sekibo, “We’re pleased with the final approval of the merger of the two institutions. The stage is now set for us to achieve the vision of a bigger and better Bank that offers world class banking services designed to help customers to create, preserve and transfer wealth”.

Sekibo added that “With this acquisition, the new Heritage Bank is better positioned to offer unparalleled banking services which spread across over 200 branches, 177 ATMs, 57 Cash Centres and 2000 POS Terminals in 26 states.

We shall harness the better of the two worlds combined in terms of our innovative products, bespoke technology and extended branch network manned by a team of tenacious people; as this automatically transforms our bank from a tier-2 player to a strong tier-1 player that is ONE! BIGGER! BETTER!,”.

“As we integrate into a larger bank, we assure our esteemed customers that this strategic stride is ultimately to serve them better. We affirm our commitment to all stakeholders that we will continue to deliver on our promise of creating and preserving wealth across generations through highly personalised service.”

Heritage Bank had, on October 15, 2014, made history with the successful completion of the acquisition of Enterprise Bank, after investing about N56 billion in the deal. A federal high court sitting in Lagos on July 27th 2015 ordered an Extra-ordinary General Meeting of all the parties to the deal. This was held on Wednesday, August 12th August, 2015, where the shareholders of the merging banks sealed the deal.

As a brand built on a legacy of innovation, Heritage Bank recently achieved a milestone with the ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certification award in recognition of its commitment to effective and secured financial system. The bank has also set a record as the only bank in Nigeria to get this certification award in less than three years of operation. It has, by this certification, joined the league of big players already certified in the industry, including the CBN.

“The legacy of innovation was reinforced when the bank received the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, PCI DSS certification, in addition to the ISO/IEC 27001:2013 award. The PCI DSS is a proprietary information security standard for organizations that handle branded credit cards from the major card schemes including Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, and JCB.

The certification was in recognition of the bank’s commitment to effective and secured financial system which has put the bank in the league of big players in the industry and confer internationally-recognised standard on its operations.