Coronation Merchant Bank has zero non-performing loan assets – CEO

07 Feb 2017
Financial Nigeria

Summary

Abubakar Jimoh said the new corporate brand was designed to communicate Coronation’s vision to become Africa’s premier investment bank.

Abubakar Jimoh, Managing Director/CEO, Coronation Merchant Bank

The Managing Director of Coronation Merchant Bank, Abubakar Jimoh, said today that the lender – which commenced operations in 2015 – has zero non-performing loan assets unlike most other merchant and commercial banks in the banking industry.

Speaking during a press briefing in Lagos to unveil the bank’s new corporate brand, Jimoh said Coronation Merchant Bank achieved the feat because it learnt from the mistakes of other players and rigorously selected customers who met stiff risk management criteria.

“We began as a merchant bank in 2015 so we learnt from others,” Jimoh said. “We were not aggressive in our asset creation. We defined our risk appetite to be moderate and determined our customer base. We were also very careful in our exposures to dollar-based assets, which is one of the main reasons for the high NPLs amongst banks.”

Jimoh said Coronation Merchant Bank is not designed to be the biggest player in the industry in terms of size of operations. But the investment bank intends to be the best in services, technology, product innovation, and customer experience.

“We can’t serve everybody so we have decided to focus on corporate clients, high net-worth individuals, and financial services businesses,” Jimoh said. “We started as the third merchant bank in Nigeria but our performance has improved considerably.”

On the new corporate brand, Jimoh said it was designed to communicate Coronation’s vision to become Africa’s premier investment bank with a respected brand within the region.

“There is a clear market demand for more sophisticated banking services from Nigeria’s top-tier corporates,” Jimoh said. “Coronation Merchant Bank will focus on bringing world-class advisory services, accompanied by innovative products and services to the sub-region; deepen and broaden economic growth over the next decade, whilst remaining committed to our values of strong governance and transparency.”

Founded in 1993 as Associated Discount House, Coronation Merchant Bank obtained a merchant (investment) banking licence from the Central Bank of Nigeria in 2015. The bank’s operations cover investment banking, corporate banking, securities trading, asset management, wealth management, global markets and treasury, and trusteeship. In the 2016 half-year ended June 30th, Coronation reported revenue of N4.5 billion, after-tax profit of N2.58 billion, and total assets of N98.45 billion.


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