Access, Diamond Bank yet to seek regulatory approval for merger

The Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it is yet to receive official request from both Access Bank and Diamond Bank to merge into an entity, one week after the two lenders broke the news to the public.
Mary Uduk, acting director general of the commission said though the two commercial lenders had sent informal notification of their intention to merge, they are yet to formally make the request for regulatory approval for their intention.
Uduk spokes with Boason Omofaye on Channels TV Business Morning on Wednesday also on many issues impacting the capital market.
“We have received a formal notification informing us of their intention to merge, but we have not received any request for the merger,” she said.
The SEC chief also blamed the rise in the amount of unclaimed dividend on the incidence of multiple share purchase with fictitious names by many shareholders during the banking consolidation in 2005.
She, however, says the commission is doing all it could to reconcile those accounts to enable the affected shareholder to benefits from the purchased and ensure transparency in the capital market.
She also attributed the huge capital outflow from frontier markets, including Nigeria to the recent increase in interest rate in advance economies.
“Increase in interest rate in advance economies has significantly impacted on the rate of capital outflows, not only from Nigeria but many frontiers economies as well,” Uduk said.
Access and Diamond Banks announced plans to merge into an entity last week through a notification letter to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).
Access Bank plans to pay around 27 billion naira and 6.6 billion shares in exchange for the acquisition of the Diamond Bank and absorbed it into its operations.