Press Releases

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) of the United Kingdom (UK) has licensed Intercontinental Bank (UK) Plc, a subsidiary of Intercontinental Bank Plc, as a full-fledged bank offering wholesale banking services in the United Kingdom. FSA, the UK’s apex financial services authority, is one of the strictest financial services regulatory authorities in the world.

The FSA licence, according to industry sources, is a clear testimony of the international standard and best practices in Intercontinental Bank’s affairs, its financial strength and the effectiveness of its global positioning strategy. It also consolidates the Bank’s rating last year by The Banker Magazine, a subsidiary of the Financial Times of London, as the second fastest growing bank in the World and first in Nigeria to enter the list of top 500 banks in the World.

The bank is authorized to perform trade services business, including letters of credits, collections and guarantees. Other aspects of its business includes structuring and funding of  structured trade and project finance transactions as well as arrangement of funding fro group entities.

A statement from the Bank’s headquarters in Lagos, Nigeria said a seasoned international banker, Mr. Marcus Hopkins has been appointed chief executive, while another international banker, Mr. Richard Wailes will serve as Chief Operating officer.
  
Hopkins was previously an Executive Director and Head of Capital Markets for Moscow Narodny Bank. Prior to this he was the Head of Emerging Markets for HSBC Bank in the UK, while Wailes functioned in similar role at Banacci Group in London prior to its acquisition by Citigroup.

The new subsidiary has a seven man board including three directors nominated by the sole shareholder- Intercontinental Bank Plc. These are the Group Chairman, Dr. Raymond Obieri, the Group Chief Executive, Dr. Erastus Akingbola and Dr. Mrs. Olutoyin Phillips, a non executive director.

Others include UK (independent) non executive directors, Mr. Chris Duncan, a former client risk director at Barclays Group and Peter Sullivan who was Chief Executive for Standard Chartered Bank’s Asian operations until the end of December 2007 and has also been the Group Chief Executive for Standard Chartered Bank’s  operations in Africa.

According to the Group Chief Executive Intercontinental Bank Plc, Dr. Erastus Akingbola, Intercontinental Bank (UK) Plc, located in 36 Leadenhall Street, a prestigious banking hub in the heart of London, will enable Nigerians and other nationals as well as corporate organisations in and outside the UK carry out seamless financial transactions in UK and anywhere in the world adding that the UK subsidiary will also serve as base for further future geographic expansion. “London will act as a strategic addition to Intercontinental Bank’s global expansion drive providing international investors with access to investment opportunities in African continent and other parts of the world”.
 
The bank’s vision is to be in all continents. It currently operates from more than 300 business offices in Nigeria with a subsidiary in Ghana, the Intercontinental Bank (Ghana) Plc, which was established in 2006 with eight business offices in key commercial centers of Ghana. Dr. Akingbola said more subsidiaries will open soon, to exploit identified business windows, in other parts of Africa, America, Europe, Middle East and Far East.

Intercontinental Bank has set its sights on being a world class financial institution and among the world’s ten leading banks. Analysts said the bank’s track record of superlative performance over the years puts it in good stead to achieve its vision.

The financial results for the year ended February 2008 recently published by the bank saw its deposit and assets base rising to a new industry high.

The deposit base soared to N1.05 trillion, an increase of 126 per cent from N468 billion in the previous year, while total assets also recorded a quantum leap to N1.7 trillion, representing a growth of 108 per cent from N823 billion, thus making the bank the first to hit trillion Naira mark in deposit and also giving it number one position in total assets. Banking industry analysts attribute the unprecedented growth in the bank’s deposits portfolio to robust customer confidence. The customer base has been on the rise since post consolidation.

The bank also recorded a phenomenal growth in gross earnings which stood at N173.5 billion, an increase of 99 per cent over the N87.4 billion recorded in the previous year. Profit before tax grew by a whopping 102 per cent to N45.6 billion, as against N22.6 billion in 2007, while the capital base rose to N200 billion from N157 billion.

The sterling performance was also attributed to the effective delivery of the bank’s business model introduced in 2006 to drive its businesses across geographical and sectoral divergence of the banking public.

Intercontinental bank recently embarked upon a strategic repositioning drive to dominate retail markets across the country, leverage on its strong corporate finance business and massive market response to the bank’s consistent delivery on its brand promises to make customers happy with excellent banking services.

Akingbola who will be presenting his scorecard to shareholders today in Abuja, said the bank is poised to surpass its previous year’s performance. ‘‘We are encouraged by our drive, vision and capacity to double, year on year, all the performance indicators of the bank. We intend to beat our record and we shall’, he said.