People have been screaming about the exit of HSBC and UBS as sign of bad economics. That’s a huge lie. I will try to explain it in a very simple way. HSBC and UBS were never set up for regular banking. When I say regular banking I mean retail banking. They never ran salary accounts; they were never set up to afford loans to customers etc. Their sole purpose was to help customers who can afford their services an easy way to transfer funds overseas.
Many do not know that since the inception of BVN which has made it easier for financial regulatory bodies to monitor outflow and inflow on every account, HSBC has been plotting their exit. If anyone can make their books public, you would find out they had more outflow than inflow.
BVN was created February 2014 and then enforced by this government as from 2015. What did that do? Every account owner was forced to get a BVN code on their account(s). So if law enforcement and financial regulatory bodies accuse you of fraud, with your BVN they can tell which account(s) you have funds stashed. Any account without a BVN can no longer be run. Movement of (illegal) huge sums especially overseas became a massive problem.
So imagine a bank whose main source of revenue is moving funds overseas, suddenly can stay for months on end and the only customers you get are those who maybe want to pay school fees overseas or medicals, won’t you close shop? No more wires of $200,000 and above to Dubai to buy that exotic penthouse or carrying on with shopping sprees. No more bank instruments to private jet companies overseas. The importation of big boy toys; yachts, helicopters have reduced drastically. Now, once you try to initiate a huge wire transfer, CBN red flags that account and next thing you know compliance is calling the account officer to produce KYC. Within minutes SFU (Special Fraud Unit) is doing a background check, thunder fire you if you are a civil servant or close to government. You would have to explain what the funds are for/how they were acquired and this drastically hit such banks like HSBC and UBS.
Banks like Stanbic IBTC are able to stay afloat because even though they use the same model as HSBC, they are also solid in retail banking. Any bank that opens shop under this current government with the sole aim of moving funds overseas will surely fail.
Look closely at those who are leading groups against PMB they are private jet, helicopter, yacht, schooners owners. Many own those beautiful houses we see in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Oman, Muscat, Seychelles, London, USA, etc.
Go to our airports especially Lagos and Abuja, all those beautiful girls who once used to sell Dubai real estate deals are out of jobs. The few you see have stopped hounding travelers like before. Once upon a time you would see them hanging around airports and 5 star hotels, it made me wonder why Nigerians were seriously marketing UAE real state. How do you think the transactions were being made? Through banks like HSBC and UBS (Many of our local banks also were complicit).
Now every dollar that passes through CBN to a foreign bank must have complete paperwork! Bankers are now very careful, no one wants to be invited by SFU (Special Fraud Unit) or EFCC to produce a customer. Who are those crying about their exit?
The Fayoses, Atikus, Ben Bruces and their minions etc. Look at the youth coming online to defend them; many were being flown by helicopter to private resorts all over the country. That tap has dried up and that’s the reason you see many of them online pouring vituperation on President Buhari.
About 4 years ago, I told a friend that if President Buhari wins election few banks
would be in trouble, Buhari won and it didn’t take long it started happening. Many of the bank heads used depositors monies to sponsor politicians/campaigns, when investigations started many tried to not only hide their shady deals but shield customers under investigation.
Why won’t these people hate PMB? Why won’t they blame their woes on PMB? When I say many of these banks aren’t setup for the common man, people wonder at what I mean. A very good example; write a lovely proposal for a good business deal and take it to the banks and 90% of the time you wont get funding but let APC and PDP finish primaries and produce governorship candidates. Both candidates can work into same bank and get as much as N500m each for campaigns.
Banks didn’t care then. What’s the worst that could happen? Worst case scenario, one candidate would lose. Whoever wins would bring enough investments that would cover the N1bn both took, that was conventional banking until PMB came onboard.
If say Odudu Bank sponsors Michael and he wins he would make sure almost all state accounts go to Odudu Bank. Some governors went as far as making their account officers commissioners as compensation (I don’t want to call names).
Some bank relationship managers would go on leave close to election period to join the clients on the campaign trail, once the client wins they resign their appointments with the bank and become political appointees.
Why would a bank worker do that if the bank hasn’t invested heavily on that politician? Suddenly PMB appears with this yeye BVN, TSA! Banks now see SFU officers like regular staff as they are monitoring everything. EFCC under Ibrahim Magu has become a pain in the ass because money can’t just disappear. Who do they blame? PMB!
The instant BVN came into effect; do you know how many accounts were lying dormant because of BVN? With huge sums in them! Many folks especially people being investigated wouldn’t want to come forward to claim them; Oga Magu and gang were waiting.
When many of these politicians or billionaires tell you the economy isn’t doing so well, look closely at the person because many of them own some of these 5 star hotels. Some rooms go as much N300,000 a night.
Once upon time some folks would pay for as much as one year for a room/suite upfront. Many of those militants/folks involved in oil bunkering operate this way. Mondays through Fridays they are in the creeks sabotaging oil installations, Friday they get into their convoys to PHC and then jet off to Abuja and Lagos where they eventually check into these hotels. You enter a place like Transcorp weekends you see them at the lobby, poolside and by Monday morning, banks are wiring funds to these hotels to cover expenses.
Today, the oil bunkering isn’t as lucrative as it once was. First price of crude has dropped so selling bunkered oil isn’t really worth it as it used to be. Secondly many countries are cutting down on the purchase of crude and third our military is hitting them harder than before so who is to blame? They tell you banks are falling because of PMB; lie.
Banks are falling because banks were never made for the common man. I mean Naija banks! TSA has collapsed most government accounts into central accounts.
So we no longer have many government accounts littered all over our banks, many of such accounts were set up just to steal and launder government monies.
Are these people saying Nigeria has suddenly become fine for the common man? HELL NO!
Nigeria for some years now has never favored us the ordinary folks but this is the first time we are seeing the crooked elite joining us to complain! The fact they are complaining means something is being done to halt their crooked ways. Whatever it is, BABA PLEASE CONTINUE!
And as for the common man, we didn’t gethere in four years! It took years of plundering, bad/no planning to get here. It will take a while to get us out.
Signed
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