Why some Heritage Bank customers are yet to get their money–NDIC

The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has stated that discrepancies in account names linked to the Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) of some former Heritage Bank customers are delaying their insured deposit payments.

Mr. Bello Hassan, NDIC’s Managing Director, mentioned to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja that a substantial amount has been paid to depositors without BVN-related issues.

He urged those who have not received their payments to visit the NDIC website to complete verification forms, including those without BVN-linked accounts.

He said, “We have already commenced the payment of customers since June 6. We have paid a substantial amount to the customers. What we leverage in making the payment is the BVN of customers. We trace alternate accounts in other banks and pay them their insured amounts.”

“There are some that we have challenges linking up because of some discrepancies between the names and others. We are calling on customers who have not received their alerts in their alternate accounts to come forward and complete their verification forms so that we can pay them,”

For depositors with more than five million naira, Hassan stated that they would receive a liquidation dividend. He mentioned that the NDIC has begun selling the bank’s physical assets and is working to recover loans and advances previously granted by the bank.

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According to him, “That is what we use in paying those liquidation dividends. We are not going to wait until we recover everything, no. As we recover, we will also advertise to say that we will pay liquidation dividends so that concerned depositors will be on the lookout for alerts in their accounts.”

On June 3, 2024, the Central Bank of Nigeria revoked the banking license of Heritage Bank Plc due to persistent financial instability and regulatory breaches. The decision according to the CBN is in line with the CBN’s mandate under Section 12 of the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020, which aims to maintain a stable financial system in Nigeria.

The central bank noted that despite several supervisory measures to address its declining performance, Heritage Bank failed to improve its financial health, posing a significant threat to financial stability, which led to the license revocation.

Following the withdrawal of Heritage Bank’s licence, the NDIC stated that it would begin payment of the 2.3 million depositors of the bank. The commission noted that 99% of the bank’s total customers had deposits less than N5 million.