THE EFFECTS OF BANK CONSOLIDATION ON THE PERFORMANCE OF BANKS IN NIGERIA: A CASE STUDY OF FIDELITY BANK, UBA, ACCESS BANK AND UNION BANK

THE EFFECTS OF BANK CONSOLIDATION ON THE PERFORMANCE OF BANKS IN NIGERIA: 

A CASE STUDY OF FIDELITY BANK, UBA, ACCESS BANK AND UNION BANK 

ABSTRACT

In order to strengthen the competitive and operational capabilities of banks in Nigeria with a view towards returning global and public confidence to the Nigerian banking sector and the economy in general, the central Bank of Nigeria instituted a bank reform programme in 2004 that took effect in January 2005. The consolidation exercise saw most of the then 89 banks merging with each other so as to meet the recapitalization requirement of CBN. It was earlier speculated in some financial analysis quarter that the exercise might be he only remedy to the problem of Nigerian financial system by restoring stability in the banks. This, however, has turned out to be the opposite as most post-merger results tend to highlight that consolidation has not improved banks performance.  This study tried to evaluate the impact of banks consolidation on the performance of Nigerian banks. To do this, 8 years pre and post merger financial statements of 4 consolidated banks (Access bank, Fidelity Bank, UBA, and Union bank) were obtained, adjusted, their average taken and carefully analyzed. The performance indices that were studied include profitability, liquidity, and deposit. The study employed bar chart in the course of data analysis and the pool-variance t-test distribution was used to test validity of the pre-stated hypothesis. The result revealed no difference in pre and post consolidation periods in all the variables studies. The study therefore, concluded that consolidation did not make significant impact on the performance of Nigerian bank.   

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1   BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

It is a known fact that the banking sector is the engine of growth in any economy, given its function of financial intermediation. Through this function, banks facilitate capital formation, lubricate the production engine turbine and promote growth (Adeyemi, 2006:3). However, banks ability to engender economic growth and development depends on the health, soundness and ability of the system. The need for strong, reliable and viable banking system is underscored by the fact the industry is one of the few sectors in which the shareholders fund is only a small proportion of the liabilities of the enterprises. It is therefore, not surprising that the banking industry is one of the most regulated sectors in any economy.

It is against this background that the Central Bank of Nigeria outlines the first phase of its banking sector reforms designed to ensure a diversified, strong and reliable banking industry in July 6, 2004. The primary objective of the reform according to Adeyemi (2006:14) is to guarantee an efficient and sound financial system. The reforms are also designed to enable the banking system develop the required resilience to support the economic development of the nation by efficiently performing its function as the fulcrum of financial intermediation (Lemo, 2005:16).

Consolidation of banking institutions is therefore among the element of the 13-point reform programme of CBN. Uhomoibli (2006:6) posits that the main objectives of bank consolidation in Nigeria is to move the Nigerian economy forward and strengthen the banking system in order to facilitate development, to ensure a diversified, strong and reliable banking sector which will ensure safety of depositors fund, play active and competitive role in Africa and global financial system.

The consolidation and recapitalization exercise in the banking industry has necessitated the four different banks to engage in corporate merger and acquisition. Fidelity Bank merged with FCMB and acquired Manny bank. United Bank for Africa (UBA) on its own acquired standard Trust bank and Continental bank, Access Bank acquired Marine Bank and Capital Bank while Union Bank acquired the Former Universal Trust Bank Plc and Broad Bank Ltd and absorbed its erstwhile subsidiary Union Merchant Bank Ltd.  However, the four case study banks retained their brand name after the merger and acquisition basically because of their greater capital contribution. In all, eighteen (1) banks were able to meet up with the N25billion capital base through merger and acquisition, six (6) banks stood alone while fourteen (14) could not meet the requirement and has to fold up.

The bank consolidation policy was carried out mainly through merger and acquisition which resulted in the compression of eighty-nine (89) erstwhile commercial banks in Nigeria to twenty-five (25) banks with one bank later existing the scene remaining twenty-four (24) banks. Now that the consolidation programme has come and gone, Omoh (2006:5) notes that attention has been shifted to its term effects on the Nigeria banking system.

It is on this background that this study tagged “the effects of bank consolidation on the performance of banks in Nigeria” is posed to assess the extent to which consolidation has impacted on the general performance of Nigerian banks using Access bank, UBA, Fidelity bank and Union bank as case study.

 

Introduction

The return of democracy at the dawn of the new millennium set the stage for proactive economic reform programmes targeted at enhancing the country’s quest for regional leadership and as a measure for achieving vision 20:20:20 and its twin programme - the millennium development goals. This gigantic vision calls for a radical economic reform approach of all the sectors of the economy that have direct bearing to its realization. Among other concerns bordering on delivering the much desired democracy dividend by the federal government were; Nigeria’s growing fortune as the Africa’s largest market, her growing foreign reserve, and other capabilities bequeathed on her by the benevolence of nature seen in her enormous oil endowment, which combined with the relative political stability, placed her top in the regional economic index. One of the sectors that benefited from the systematic overhaul with widest acclamation as having the potential for brightest impact on the people is the banking sector.

The history of bank reforms in Nigeria has span over five decades, with the first reform being the Murtala/Obasanjo radical reform programme in 1976; the indigenization decree, whose target was to stripe the economy of foreign dominance and all forms of colonial vestiges and giving her citizens the commanding height in the productive sector which included the banking industry. Two significant developments characterized this period as it concerned the banking sector. The first was the compulsory acquisition of 60% ownership in the then four banks by Nigerians, and the second was the setting up of a financial system review committee under the renowned Nigerian economist, Pius Okigbo. This period witnessed a more intensive intervention in banking by the public sector in light of the perception of the link between finance and development and the desire to maximize the banking sector’s contribution to Nigeria’s economic development. Muyiwa (2005).

 The gains of this initial giants stride of the then Military government in terms of effective development role of the sector and active citizen participation, was almost lost due majorly to lack of policy continuity of the subsequent administrations, corruption and ineptitude on the side of the government to develop and sustain a home  grown development strategy.

The second phase of the reform came in between 1986 –1990, and majored in strengthening the capital base of the banks  to N2 billion  and improved regulatory regime. (Central Bank of Nigeria, monthly report – August, 2004).With this regime, the number of Commercial bank sky-rocked to 119 from 41 banks, then the ugly trend of corruption and professional ineffectiveness, did not allow this reform programme make much  impact. The existence of many players and the behavioural non-compliance to statutory framework rocked the country’s banking industry the minimum international standard of operations, which resulted to high incidence of distresses in the 1990s. The banking sector continued in this flurry nature until 2004, when a the central bank of Nigeria came up with  a 13 point  reform agenda, with focus on increase in capital base, improved regulatory framework and general systemic overhaul among others. This came as a policy option to strengthen the operational importance of the Nigerian banking industry in response to the global environmental demand .

This paper is divided into four sections: The first introduces the journey so far in banking sector reforms in Nigeria; the second section deals with, and addresses the inherent weaknesses that called for the reforms; section three deals with literature review, which stresses on the gains and experiences of other fore-runner nations in banking reforms; section four addresses the impact that bank consolidation has made in all facets of the Nigerian and the economy generally.

Imperative of the reform

The deregulation of the financial sub-sector in the early 1990s coupled with the globalization of operations in the sector, and quest for technological innovations that would conform to international standard as well as address the inherent weakness in the  industry, are the tripods upon which the reforms in the Nigeria banking sector stands.

The banking reform was a corrective measure. According to the CBN, the reforms was inevitable as a result of the industry’s hitherto fragile nature, its boom and burst circles, an imminent major banking crisis, and the need to reposition the industry to grow the domestic economy (Soludo, 2004). The Nigerian banking industry before the 2004 reform was a case of a system heading to a total collapse as incidence of failure and liquidation arising from weak capitalization and operational inefficiency were common phenomenon.(Ike, 2006). Nigerian Commercial banks were the least capitalized among the developing economies. The largest bank in Nigeria before the reform had a capital base of S240 million, while the least in Malaysia had a capital base of USD536 million. In comparison to South Africa, the 89 banks put together measured the capital base of the fourth largest bank in South Africa (Umoh, 2004). The small capital strength with bunching of branches in few commercial cities, expensive headquarters, separate investments in software and hardware, heavy fixed cost and operating expenses lead to very high average cost for the industry and put undue pressure on banks to engage in sharp and unethical practices to survive ( Obansanjo Reform, Banking sector).

However, of great concern is the dependence of many banks on government deposit, with the three ties of government and parastatals accounting for over twenty percent of total deposit liabilities. Some were over dependent to the tune of fifty percent which make them vulnerable to swings to government revenue. This created a situation of fear and lost of confidence, and made Nigerians held their money in stocks, properties and other forms of risk prone investment. Studies have shown that Nigerians held over N400 billion as currency outside of the banking system (Soludo, 2004). This made the Nigerian banking industry fragile and prone to incessant liquidation. Between 1994 and 2005, a total of 30 banks closed shop due to insolvency. In 1995, four banks closed down, 1988 remain the saddest year in the history of banking in Nigeria as twenty-six banks liquidated. This situation brought untold hardship on Nigerians as over N170 million of customers’ deposits were trapped in the failed banks. (http://www.marxim.Com).

The fear that the situation was tending towards a total systematic collapse, the CBN initiated a thirteen (13) points’ reform agenda to right-track the sector. This measure trimmed-down the number of commercial banks from a whooping number of 89, to a conservative figure of 25.  According to the then central bank governor, the policy objective of the programme was not to attain any specific number but to ensure that post consolidation banks would be safe and sound, and the need to reposition the industry to grow the domestic economy and become an active participant in the sub- regional and global financial system (Soludo, 2005).

Literature review

Reforms are new conceptual frame work of doing things based on paradigm. In any economy, the philosophy of bank reforms is essentially renewal-based, designed to improve their operations by eliminating weaknesses and faults accumulated in the system over time. Reform serves as new initiative to inject into the existing system an improved and modern ingenuity that would bring in fresh life, so that the system can confront the challenges of the present and enhance the future performance. Reform is technological innovation motivated and designed to enhance intermediation and general performance for a competitive place in the global standard, stability and growth. (Berger Allen, 1998). There are two views in the correlation of bank consolidation with the entire financial sector’s stability and growth. Proponents of consolidation opine that increased size and innovative changes could potentially increase bank returns through revenue and cost efficiency. It also reduces industrial risk through the elimination of weak banks and creates better diversification (Berger, 2000). On the other hand, the second view argues that consolidation could increase banks propensity toward risk taking through increase leverage and off balance sheets operations. Ugowe (2004) argues that the essence of consolidation policy in any sector of the economy, especially as it concerns the Nigeria banking sector is a sound promise of sustaining a sector that would discharge its function effectively as was the case in Kenya. He further stated that the economy is in dared need of a financial sector that has the viability to mobilize and channel funds to the various sectors. A consolidated banking industry working with other financial institutions like the capital market and other institutions that operate within that sector such as:  Stock Exchange, Security and Exchange Commission, Issuing Houses and the Stock brokers, assist in mobilizing long term capital for investment. 

Carmeron (1967) and Michimon(1973) in their separate studies on bank consolidation, provide a linkage between banks’ financial market and the micro economies. The argument of these studies is that there is a symbiotic relationship between financial market and economic growth, noting that a well developed financial market is a ‘sine qua non’ for the growth and development of less developed economics. (Townsend, 1979; Stightz and Weiss, 1981) succinctly underscore this and developed further some of the first bank related models, based on utility and profit maximization. Nnanna (2004) focused on the role played by asymmetric information in the resource allocation. This position was held by (Diamond, 1984; Gale and Hellwhing, 1985;  Boyed and Prescott, 1986), who developed a theoretical framework for modeling financial intermediaries in an explicit manner. Banks evolve a natural process towards overcoming asymmetric information problems. Particularly, banks were presumed to possess economics of scale in regard to information gathering. On the banking sector and holistic economic growth of a nation, king and Levine (1993) have established that the banking sector development is not only a correlation with economic growth, but it is also a cause of long term growth.

Further works building on the kings and Levine thesis, have been able to show that financial markets are major sources of economic growth. ( Fernandez and Caletovic, 1995; Levine and Zervos, 1996; and Levine,1999), have all explored the correlation between the banking sector and economic growth, opining that a strong and stable financials system arising from financial sector consolidation could impact positively on real economic performance by affecting the composition of savings and influencing the scope for credit rationing.

On the gains of merger of banks, Isek (2004), noted that large banks have the capacity to be involved in loan production than in portfolios that are biased towards investment in securities. Spong (1990), puts it: Commercial banks must have enough capital to provide cushion for absorbing possible loan losses or other problems; funds for internal needs and for expansion; and added security for depositors and deposit insurance system. In addition, higher capital serves to increase the financial stake that stockholders have in the safe and sound operation of the banks. Consequently, banks’ regulators view capital as an important element of banking risks to an acceptable level. This opinion is widely held among banks’ regulators about the role of capital in absorbing operational losses, funding fixed assets, and fostering depositors’ confidence. Greuning and Bratanovic (2003),  argued that in addition to serving as a “safety-net for a variety of risk exposures and absorbing losses,” adequate capital is a determinant of a banks’ lending capacity and maximum level of assets. In other words, the volume of loans and advances that a bank is capable of creating is directly related to the level of bank’s capital, ceteris-paribus.

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