Aggressive debt recovery seen to put back Nigeria’s Skye Bank on track
Skye Bank’s renewed commitment to debt recovery and profitability is paying off as the bank has reportedly raked in over N60 billion from its debtors through aggressive and robust debt recovery efforts in the last one year.
The Management of the Bank made this disclosure in a statement issued to update stakeholders of milestones recorded in the last one year of its regulatory intervention; that has seen the management work assiduously and silently to steer the bank to stability.
CBN had on July 4, 2016, constituted a new board and management for Skye Bank Plc. to address the Bank’s declining prudential ratios and return it to sustainable profitability with a mandate to reduce the cost to income ratio; improve asset quality; improve liquidity and capital adequacy and restore profitability.
In a statement jointly signed by its Chairman and the Group Managing Director, Messers M.A Ahmad and Tokunbo Abiru, it stated that “upon the assumption of office, we found the institution in a poor state with many of its largest loans non-performing; its capital significantly eroded and liquidity impaired.”
“At the core of the bank’s challenges was a failure of corporate governance typified by a very high level of non-performing insider-related loans. The funding mix and structure; as well as risk asset portfolio mix also signified improper risk management exposing the institution to policy and currency risks.”
The bank’s management outlined the efforts it put in place to drive and restore customer confidence and stabilize the institution. “One of the most important challenges the management addressed, relates to the inadequacy of loan security and improper collateral documentation in the legacy portfolio of the bank.
“The management over the last one year has worked assiduously on cleaning up loan and collateral documentation on most of the high-value facilities, thus putting the bank in a stronger position to enforce its rights as a lender.”
Skye Bank is one of Nigeria’s leading retail banks with a wide range of electronic solutions and services, promoting consumer lifestyle and e-commerce experience especially within the retail, and SME banking space.