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The Central Bank of Nigeria announced on Monday that it had carried out top Board and Management changes at Skye Bank Plc due to the bank's persistent failure to meet minimum liquidity and prudential requirements.

In a statement released by the CBN, the banking regulator said 12 directors of Skye Bank, including the Chairman, Dr. Olatunde Ayeni, and Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Timothy Oguntayo, had resigned with immediate effect.

Following their resignation, the CBN appointed Alh. M. K. Ahmad as the new Chairman of Skye Bank and Adetokunbo Abiru as the new Managing Director. The apex bank said the new industry experts have been tasked to speedily restore the health of the bank.   

"These  proactive  moves  have  become  unavoidable  in view  of  the  persistent  failure  of  Skye  Bank  PLC  to  meet minimum  thresholds  in  critical prudential  and adequacy ratios,   which   has   culminated   in   the bank’s   permanent presence  at  the  CBN  Lending  Window," according to the central bank's statement.

The CBN also said, as Domestic Systematically Important Bank (SIB), Skye Bank’s financial and governance situation posed potential threats to the overall stability of the financial system.

At a Bankers’ Committee meeting last month, Dr. Sarah Alade, Deputy Governor (Economic Policy) of the CBN, presented a report that highlighted a dismal performance of the banking sector. Among several declining indicators, Dr. Alade said Non-Performing Loans (NPL) ratio for the banking sector has increased to 10.1 per cent, way above the prudential limit of 5 per cent. The industry’s liquidity ratio was also shown to have dropped to 39.78 per cent as at April 2016 compared with 46.3 per cent a year ago. However, the CBN report stated that liquidity ratio is still above the minimum requirement of 30 per cent.

The new Chairman of Skye Bank is the pioneer Director General  and  Chief  Executive  Officer  of  the  National  Pension Commission  (PENCOM) and has over 35 years of experience in both the public and financial services sector. The Managing Director, Abiru, is a former Lagos State Commissioner of Finance and until recently he was an Executive Director in First Bank Plc.

The CBN has urged depositors and shareholders of the bank not to panic, stating that the bank is not in distress.

"It is important to reiterate the fact that Skye Bank is not in distress and remains a healthy bank in the system," the CBN said.