Banking
Scottish Banks set for Independence Vote
EDINBURGH — Visitors arriving at Edinburgh airport are greeted with a large Royal Bank of Scotland Group advert stating “This Is Home.”
The bank’s management isn’t sure for how long. In September, Scotland will vote whether to become independent from the rest of the U.K. after more than three centuries of union.
“Like many other companies we are having to consider the possible business implications of a Yes vote and our response,” says RBS Chairman Philip Hampton, adding, “There is a great deal of uncertainty.”
Adding to the complexity: RBS is controlled by the British government following a bailout.
Polls suggest the independence campaign may fall short in September’s referendum. But there still remains a large swath of undecided voters and lots of unanswered questions.
With only a few weeks to go until the vote, it is unclear whether an independent Scotland would retain European Union membership; what currency it would use; how much of the U.K.’s debt it would assume; and how bond markets would rate its debt. Banks and other lenders may have to revisit credit decisions on millions of customers and rethink pension plans for thousands of staff, for instance.
Scotland wouldn’t officially split from the U.K. until March 2016 at the earliest, but uncertainty is already taking its toll.
There is anecdotal evidence that Scots are starting to pull back on house buying, says Faisal Choudhry, associate director of residential research in Scotland for estate agent Savills. SVS.LN -0.98% “The mega issues have yet to be resolved,” he said.
One in five small Scottish businesses said that the referendum had influenced a business decision in the last year, according to a poll by The Federation of Small Businesses.
For Scotland’s banks, there is much at stake. Scottish banking assets are 12 times the size of Scotland’s gross domestic product, according to the U.K. Treasury. The finance industry accounts for 200,000 jobs—about a 12th of the workforce—and contributes about £7 billion ($11.99 billion) to the economy, according to Scottish Financial Enterprise, a trade body.
Fearing the wrath of some customers and unable to predict what exactly would happen if Scotland did become independent, the big finance companies here are largely keeping quiet on the issue. One executive at a large asset management company refused to put a political bumper sticker on his car. “I don’t want it vandalized,” he said.
Others are working behind the scenes.
Lloyds Banking Group LLOY.LN -0.64% PLC has appointed a 12-person committee to determine the impact of the referendum on customers and look into the potential practicalities of moving their legal headquarters from Edinburgh, according to people close to their plans. A spokesman for the bank says it has no current plans to move.
Edinburgh-based Standard Life SL.LN -0.50% PLC, a savings and investment company which manages £191 billion in assets, is creating registered companies outside Scotland so that it can move business south should Scotland vote for independence. Alliance Trust, an investment trust incorporated over 125 years ago, has been doing the same.
At RBS, which traces its Scottish heritage back to 1727 and employs 12,000 people in the country, there is the added complication of its government ownership.
The bank was once touted as a symbol of Scottish power. In 2007, RBS played music from “Braveheart”—the Mel Gibson film about a 13th century warrior who led the Scots in the first war of Scottish independence—at its annual shareholder meeting. But following a £45.5 billion bailout by U.K. taxpayers, the bank is now 80% U.K. state controlled.
It is not clear how that stake would be divided between London and Edinburgh if Scotland votes for independence.
Options For Scotland, a pro-independence group, suggests RBS should be split up, with the Scottish government getting a majority stake in the Scottish part of the bank. “I wouldn’t be terribly upset if RBS was to be broken up,” says Frank McKirgan, RBS’s former head of global equities and a pro-independence supporter. “It’s in the interest of everyone for banks to be smaller.”
Earlier this year, though, U.K. Business Secretary Vince Cable said it was “inevitable” that RBS, would move its legal headquarters to England following a “yes” vote. Officials point to a little-known 1995 European Union directive which suggests that financial companies must be headquartered where the bulk of their activities are.
The debate is an unwanted distraction for RBS’s management. The bank last year posted a £9 billion loss and pledged to cut billions of pounds worth of costs while refocusing its franchise on U.K. retail activities.
The chairman of the bank’s Scotland Board is leading a task force to deal with the Scottish situation. RBS executives hold regular dinners with Scottish National Party leader Alex Salmond —who spent seven years working at the bank as an economist—to get a read on how things will play out.
The bank’s senior staff has also talked with counterparts at Royal Bank of Canada RY.T +0.58% to learn how the Canadian bank dealt with Quebec’s separatist votes, according to people familiar with the matter. One of the main challenges they discussed was managing a potential flow of money out of Scottish banks should independence be voted for, according to one person familiar with the conversation.
RBS also met with Bank of England officials on several occasions to discuss worries that customers could withdraw deposits from Scottish banks in the event of independence. The plan is to reassure customers that nothing changes until Scotland officially breaks away from the U.K.
For its part, the SNP is playing down the impact of RBS or Lloyds moving their legal headquarters. Most of the banks’ top jobs have already moved to London. And, one SNP adviser notes, if the banks head south, Scotland wouldn’t be on the hook for bailing them out if they fail.
– WALLSTREET JOURNAL
Banking
Millions of customers still stranded worldwide 24 hours after GT Bank online operations suffered attacks
By Yemie ADEOYE
GT Bank, one of Nigeria’s leading banks, with operations across Africa and the United kingdom, and with an asset base of about US$3.11 trillion is under a cyber attack which has left millions of its customers across the world stranded in the last 24 hours.
The bank which was renowned for its seamless online operations at inception has suffered dwindling online efficiency in recent years and this current attack didn’t come as a surprise to many of its numerous customers. However, it is becoming worrisome that over 24 hours after its online operations went down, the bank has not been able to arrest the situation and restore its online services.
Stranded GT Bank customers outside the banks premises
Several customers of the bank took to their X (formerly known as twitter) handles to express their frustrations at the bank, as several of the customers in the diaspora are unable to access their accounts and carry on with their transactions. A customer , Jeff55 who lamented on his X handle about the development, stated that it is a thing of shock that a bank of this size couldn’t afford to have the necessary tools and experts to ensure a full protection of its online operations in this age and time.
Another customer Dimma stated that while Cybersecurity training may seem tedious, the recent #GTBank hack is a stark reminder that everyone is just a click away from a devastating attack.
Several media organisations had reported that hackers have stolen GT Bank website, and intercepted customers Data in massive phishing operation.
At the time of filing this report, Biztellers.com.ng checks on the banks website shows that it is still down and unaccessible, and neither GT Bank media and communications unit nor any of its agencies or surrogates have commented officially on the development.
Says output surge buoyed by reforms he announced in May 2024 to address gaps in PIA
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Sunday declared a resurgence in the oil & gas industry, commending the increased crude production to 1.6 million barrels per day.
The president, who said this in a national broadcast, maintained that the resurgence was buoyed by the reforms he announced in May 2024 to address the gaps in the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
Nigeria’s crude oil output got a boost to 1.61 million barrels per day in July 2024 through the president’s directive and the industry leadership provided by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).
Acknowledging what he called a resurgence of the once-declining oil and gas industry in his Sunday-morning broadcast to the nation, President Tinubu said that oil investors are coming back to Nigeria.
He said; “Our once-declining oil and gas industry is experiencing a resurgence on the back of the reforms I announced in May 2024 to address the gaps in the Petroleum Industry Act. Last month, we increased our oil production to 1.61 million barrels per day, and our gas assets are receiving the attention they deserve. Investors are coming back, and we have already seen two Foreign Direct Investments signed of over half a billion dollars since then.
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“Fellow Nigerians, we are a country blessed with both oil and gas resources, but we met a country that had been dependent solely on oil-based petrol, neglecting its gas resources to power the economy.
We were also using our hard-earned foreign exchange to pay for and subsidise its use. To address this, we immediately launched our Compressed Natural Gas Initiative (CNG) to power our transportation economy and bring costs down.
This will save over two trillion Naira a month, being used to import PMS and AGO and free up our resources for more investment in healthcare and education.
“To this end, we will be distributing a million kits of extremely low or no cost to commercial vehicles that transport people and goods and who currently consume 80% of the imported PMS and AGO.
“We have started the distribution of conversion kits and the setting up of conversion centres across the country in conjunction with the private sector. We believe that this CNG initiative will reduce transportation costs by approximately 60 per cent and help to curb inflation.”
Plans are in top gear for the 11th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the FBN Holdings Plc.
The management made this disclosure in a notice it filed with the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) on Thursday, where it averred that it has not been served with any court order against the proposed AGM.
According to notice, which was signed by the acting Company Secretary, Adewale Arogundade, FBN Holding said, “The attention of FBN Holdings Plc (the Company) has been drawn to recent media reports purporting that the Company has received a Court Order stopping it from holding the Annual General Meeting (AGM) scheduled for August 15, 2023.
“We confirm that this assertion is a false narrative as the Company has, as at the date hereof, not been served with any court order to stop the forthcoming AGM.
“Suffice to mention that the AGM is a statutory meeting of Shareholders that must be held in accordance with the law, further to which the Company will notify the regulators and the public as appropriate if there is any lawful order to restrain the Company from conducting same.
“We hereby assure our esteemed Shareholders that the AGM shall hold on August 15, 2023, as planned and we look forward to their attendance and active participation at the meeting.”
However, court orders published in national dailies showed that the Federal High Court in Lagos had issued an order against the financial institution, barring it from holding its 11th AGM.
The order was entered pursuant to a petition by Olusegun Onagoruwa, in suit No: FHC/L/CP/1271/2022. It was addressed to the bank and some other bank officials.
It read, “Take notice that unless you obey the directives in the judicial order contained in the order made on July 15, 2022, by the Federal High Court, Lagos, by refraining from proceeding with the 11th Annual General Meeting of FBN Holdings Limited proposed for August 15, 2023, from seeking approval to issue or raise share capital in any manner whatsoever, from appointing or confirming the appointment of new directors, or in any other manner taking any step towards implementing, actualising enforcing resolution of the 10th Annual General Meeting of FBN Holdings Plc held on June 20, 2022, or in any other manner overreaching, disobeying or undermining the said order of a court, you will be guilty of contempt of court and you will be liable to be committed to prison and to there imprisoned.”
Biztellers brought you a report that a segment of shareholders had staged a protest at the headquarters of the bank on Monday, calling for the AGM to be held, as well as soliciting regulatory interventions.
It is expected that at the AGM, FHN Holdings is poised to breathe life into plans to seek shareholders’ approval to raise N150bn fresh capital via a rights issue and elect new directors including billionaire, Femi Otedola and Samson Ariyibi among other resolutions.
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