{"id":249,"date":"2014-04-02T13:00:31","date_gmt":"2014-04-02T12:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/?p=249"},"modified":"2016-10-28T15:37:10","modified_gmt":"2016-10-28T14:37:10","slug":"pan-african-banks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/2014\/04\/02\/pan-african-banks\/","title":{"rendered":"Pan-African Banks: Turning Around a Bad Reputation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unfortunately, when we think about Nigerian banks<\/strong>, what immediately comes to mind are those e-mails we’ve all received requesting a transfer to an obscure account. However, not all Nigerian banks are alike<\/b>. Following a privatization and liberalization period, a process of industry consolidation<\/b> started in 2005. A capital requirement was imposed of naira (N<\/span>) 25 billion (about \u20ac 0.1 billion, or U.S. $ 0.15 billion). This left 25 solid institutions<\/b> alive, some of which decided to become Pan-African banks<\/b>.<\/p>\n

\"UBA's<\/a>
UBA’s e-banking services<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

United Bank for Africa<\/a> (UBA)<\/a><\/b> is one of these Pan-African banks.<\/b> First, they became a dominant financial institution in Nigeria operating in all product and service segments. Now, UBA operates in 19 African countries and has offices in New York, London, and Paris <\/span><\/a>.<\/b> The rationale for this move:<\/b> to follow their international customers, and to tap the economic growth in selected African markets.<\/p>\n

Their next aspiration is to become a global bank<\/b>: Africa’s upcoming economic growth will make the continent increasingly interdependent across the board, enabling these transactions.<\/p>\n

\"Access<\/a>
Access Bank headquarters in Lagos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Access Bank<\/a>, GTBank<\/a>, and\u00a0Zenith<\/a> are also Pan-African banks<\/strong> of Nigerian origin. But some others come from different areas. For instance, Standard Bank Group<\/a><\/strong> (also known as Stanbic Bank<\/a>) started in South Africa, and Ecobank<\/a><\/strong> was born as West African.<\/p>\n

For Pan-African banks to<\/span> become global players,\u00a0they need (among other things) to <\/span> overcome some reputational issues<\/b>.\u00a0But they are working on it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ecobank<\/a><\/b>, for instance,\u00a0has been in the international press for close to a year in relation to corporate governance scandals<\/b>, which practically led the bank to paralysis. This may have come to an end with the removal of Ecobank’s CEO<\/a> last month<\/b>.<\/b><\/p>\nNigerian banks need to overcome a negative country image, and they keep working at preventing fraud <\/span><\/a>. To give you an example, at GTBank<\/b><\/a> (another Nigerian bank with a Pan-African footprint and an office in London), they hire young graduates who have not been exposed to fraudulent practices. As part of their training program, GTBank’s new hires visit jail <\/span><\/a>.<\/b> Showing the consequences of financial crime is one way to prevent them from falling into it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unfortunately, when we think about Nigerian banks, what immediately comes to mind are those e-mails we’ve all received requesting a transfer to an obscure account. However, not all Nigerian banks are alike. Following a privatization and liberalization period, a process of industry consolidation started in 2005. A capital requirement was imposed of naira (N) 25 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1654,"featured_media":261,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[77626],"tags":[7967,461,139,782,80751,45464,100508],"class_list":["post-249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entrepreneurship-in-africa","tag-banking","tag-corruption","tag-finance","tag-globalization","tag-internacionalization","tag-reputation","tag-united-bank-for-africa","megacategoria-mc-africa"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t