JPMorgan’s CBN Licence Brings Foreign Banks in Nigeria to Five
The new Approval-in-Principle licence granted by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to JPMorgan Chase & Co to operate a merchant bank operation in Nigeria brings the number of banks with full operations in the country to five.
The CBN granted JPMorgan the license after the deposit of the N50 billion minimum capital requirement for a merchant banking license.
Before the CBN license, the foreign banks currently operating in Nigeria are Citibank, Standard Chartered Bank, Stanbic IBTC and Ecobank Transnational Incorporated.
Standard Chartered is British though it largely operates outside the United Kingdom and in emerging markets in Asia and Africa. Though Stanbic IBTC started in Nigeria as an investment banking group and later merged with Chartered Bank o become a commercial bank, it is currently a member of South African Standard Bank Group.
Ecobank is largely owned by a group of pan African investors. JPMorgan will join Citibank as the second American bank operating in the country. Other banks such as Barclays Bank and Mauritius International Bank operate representative offices in Nigeria.
Foreign Banks in Nigeria
Stanbic IBTC and Ecobank largely play in the retail and consumer banking space with each of them operating not less than 100 branches across the country. On the other hand, Citibank and Standard Chartered swing more towards institutional, wealth management and large corporate markets with each having less than 20 branches in Nigeria.
JPMorgan also during the weekend confirmed the appointment of three distinguished Nigerians as non-executive directors. These include Sarah Omotunde Alade, former deputy governor of the CBN, Kanyinsola, Ajayi a distinguished corporate lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and Seni Adetu, former manager director of Guinness Nigeria Plc.
