Heritage Bank Plc., usually called Heritage Bank, is a financial services institution. It is one of the

commercial bank A commercial bank is a financial institution which accepts deposits from the public and gives loans for the purposes of consumption and investment to make profit. It can also refer to a bank, or a division of a large bank, which deals with cor ...

s licensed by the

Central Bank of Nigeria The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is the central bank and apex monetary authority of Nigeria established by the CBN Act of 1958 and commenced operations on 1 July 1959. The major regulatory objectives of the bank as stated in the CBN Act are ...

, the country's banking regulator, with a national operating license, that offers retail banking, corporate banking, online/internet banking, investment banking and asset management services; its head office is at 292B Ajose Adeogun Street,

Victoria Island, Lagos Victoria Island (VI) is an affluent area that encompasses a former island of the same name neighbouring Lagos Island, Ikoyi and the Lekki Peninsula by the Lagos Lagoon. It is the main business and financial centre of Lagos State, Nigeria. Vi ...

Lagos State Lagos State ( yo, Ìpínlẹ̀ Èkó) is a States of Nigeria, state in South West (Nigeria), southwestern Nigeria. Of the 36 States of Nigeria, states, it is both the List of Nigerian states by population, most populous and List of Nigerian state ...

, Nigeria.

Overview

In 2012, the core investor, IEI Plc, through IEI Investments Limited, acquired the Societe Generale Bank of Nigeria license from the Central Bank of Nigeria. Having fulfilled all required criteria, the bank returned 100% of existing Societe Generale account holders’ money to their owners. Heritage Bank Plc is a large financial services provider in Nigeria. Currently licensed as a ''National Bank'', it offers banking and financial services in the country, including the South, West, Southeast and the North. , the total asset valuation of the bank was estimated at US$1.7+ billion (NGN:483.4 billion). Its shareholders' equity is worth at least US$88 million (NGN:25 billion), the minimum capital requirement by the

, for national banks.

History

The bank traces its roots to the late 1970s, when it was founded as Societe Generale Bank (Nigeria), by the late Dr. Olusola Saraki. In January 2006, the Central Bank closed down Societe Generale on account of failure to meet new minimum capital requirements of US$155 million (NGN:25 billion) for a ''National Bank''. Societe Generale successfully challenged the closure in court. In December 2012, the Central Bank re-issued Societe Generale's banking license, but as a regional bank. Having acquired the banking license, the new ownership re-branded the bank as Heritage Banking Company Limited and opened for business under the new name on 4 March 2013. In October 2014, Heritage Banking Company Ltd successfully met the requirements of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) and the Central Bank of Nigeria toward owning 100% shares in Enterprise Bank Ltd. On 27 January 2015, AMCON officially transferred ownership of Enterprise Bank Ltd to Heritage Bank Plc.

Ownership

, the bank's

stock In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dictionary: "stock - ''especially AmE'' one of the shares into which ownership of a company ...

is publicly owned by the following corporate entities and individuals:

Branch network

Headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria, Heritage Bank Plc has 127 branches and 202 automated banking centers with over 350 ATMs in all states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory.

Governance

Jani Ibrahim FNSE, FAEng., OON, mni, a non-executive director, serves as the acting

chairman The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...

of the seven-person

board of directors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

. The

managing director A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

and

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

, is Ifiesimama Sekibo.

Acquiring Enterprise Bank

In October 2014, Heritage Bank acquired 100% shareholding in

Enterprise Bank Limited Enterprise Bank Limited (EBL), also known as Enterprise Bank, was a commercial bank in Nigeria. It was licensed as a commercial bank by the Central Bank of Nigeria, the country's banking regulator. Overview Enterprise Bank was a large financial ...

, a nationalized financial services provider with over 160 branches and US$1.6 billion in assets. Heritage paid AMCON US$340 million (NGN:56.1 billion), in cash, for the acquisition. Heritage Investment Services Limited, the investment arm of Heritage Banking Company Limited, was the winning bidder out of 24 Nigerian and International companies who competed for the acquisition of Enterprise Bank.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.hbng.com/ Banks of Nigeria Banks established in 2012 Nigerian brands Companies based in Lagos Victoria Island, Lagos Nigerian companies established in 2012