The mirage that is ethical banking

By Joseph Edgar…

This matter between Guarantee Trust Bank and its wealthy trader cum manufacturer customer is generating a lot of interest in the system. Different positions are being taken depending on which side of the divide you belong and as such the true factual position is very difficult to arrive at.

The bank and its supporters allege that the wealthy customer had caused so many infractions in their relationship especially in the way he was alleged to have forged documents to clear his goods without recourse to the agreement which gave the Orange Bank lien over the goods as against some facility or whatever that was availed him with the Customs being in the core of the matter. The customer in his own position has alleged that the Orange Bank had overcharged him on the facility running into billions and as such was not owing them anything.

The matter was dragged to court and it is said that the customer won the case. The Orange Bank appealed and it is further said that the customer won on appeal. The EFCC was dragged in and the customer suffered some painful personal humiliation including the alleged harassment of his wife which led the Senate to come into the matter, also giving it an ethnic coloration.

Well, from various news reports we have been told that the Supreme Court has awarded a whopping N8b in claims to the customer giving him lien on some of the Banks Assets until judgement as been executed.

So, an objective observer has to be very careful in analyzing this situation because there is so much information out there that facts have been muddied. The enthusiasm of the public to pillory the Bank has led to all sorts of positions that one has to be extremely careful in sifting facts from childish fiction.

But for me, I would like in this write up to pull back and go around the issue and discuss ethics, transparency, decision taking and best practices in our financial Institutions.

First, let me throw this out there. I see no reason why the Board of the Orange Bank is still in tact. By now if they were honorable men, they should all have resigned especially the MD for the simple fact that, win or lose, the Bank has suffered untold PR damage in this matter. The reputational damage the Bank has suffered especially in showing the world that it lacked the pure essence of customer relationship and respect is glaring. The failure of consensus building, negotiation and middle of the road positioning and replaced by arrant bullying laced with an arrogant approach to a matter where the client has some level of credit is to say the least gob-smacking.

I find it very hard to believe that in serious negotiations and consensus building a middle of the road win win position could not have been reached. It is the arrogance of the winner takes all approach that drives the greed in our financial institutions that has led this Bank to where it has found itself today with mud splattered all over their face.

So, where is the ethical positioning it has branded itself with. If the customer eventually proves his positioning that he has been over charged on facilities, where is the transparency that they have been brandishing if as we have been told that even their auditors have come to the same positioning with the customer even though with a variance on figures.

We have heard that a case of over charging has been proven and on the back of that the courts have awarded judgement in favor of customer at a particular interest rate. At this point, instead of the Bank to go into arbitration and negotiation they arrogantly pushed to appeal. Like I have said in this write up, all these ‘facts’ have been pulled from the various reports splashed all over the media both credible and non-credible sources and as such one must be careful in distilling them for a serious write up like this.

However, the fact that this has reached this point shows the ineffectiveness of the Bank and its leaders. Their inability to cull this, cut their losses and ensure minimal exposure of the brand to the hurricane of negative public oprobium throws them up as kindergarten crises managers and as such with no basis for continued access to the levers of leadership of this very prestigious Bank.

I know I will be pilloried for this positioning but if we could for once throw away the cloak of emotions and see the issue for what it is, then we will begin the long overdue sanity that is required in the system.

Read also: Nigeria 2019: Have we learnt any lessons?

This case to many watchers is a watershed case. So, banks delight themselves with the announcement of massive profits running into trillions and the very next year they go into a merger or acquisition like the one we are seeing now. Even with their trillions in profits and reserves, they will be giving staff billions in targets thereby exposing their staff especially females to untoward risks. It is a known fact that male bankers have one of the highest incidences of blood pressure due to the constant stress and tension they face from lackeys who call themselves Bankers like the ones we are seeing in this Bank.

This case will demystify these banks throwing them up for what they truly are, shrines for the manifestation of true greed and avarice and ruled by egoistic charlatans who cover themselves with the cloak of integrity and professionalism.

This case will, if it goes the way we are hoping it will, amongst others show us exactly where the trillions as profits are coming from. It will show us the underarm tactics used to rape the people and the economy, it will show us the evils of crass capitalism in a system where poverty is the lot and it will further explain the reason why we have a robust banking system in an otherwise shrinking and dying economy.

We await clarifications and interpretations of the said Supreme Court judgement after which we will come back with more detailed analysis. For now, the shareholders of this bank owe the system a debt of duty by asking for the resignation of its Board. They have done enough, let the cleansing begin.

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