Capital market authority fines First Bank, two others N13.5m

Abubakar Yunusa

First Bank Holdings Plc, Unity Bank Plc and Union Bank Plc have been fined N13.5 million by the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) for failing to file their financial statements before the regulatory due dates.

The capital market authority’s listing rules stipulate public companies release their quarterly financial statements 60 days after each quarter, while the Full Year earnings are mandated to be submitted 90 days after year ends.

However, Unity Bank management, led by Oluwatomi Somefun, failed to submit both Full Year financial results for 2021 and First Quarter 2022 statements, resulting into a total N4.2 million penalty, with the former attracting N3.6 million fine, and the latter costing the firm N600,000.

First Bank also failed to submit both the Q1 financial statements for 2022 and the FY earnings results for last year before the deadline, resulting to the capital market authority penalising the lender, led by Adesola Adeduntan, N2.6 million and N5.5 million respectively.

Union Bank, led by Emeka Okonkwo, was fined N1.2 million for not releasing its 2021 Full Year financial statements.

The sanction is expected to affect the profit of Unity Bank, FBN Holdings and Union Bank, as well as impact investors confidence in their management to comply with the rules of the capital market going into Q2 and the Second Half of 2022.

Ripples Nigeria understands that the timely release of financial statements aids investors in their decisions relating to trading in the capital market. Failure to do so puts shareholders and prospective investors in the dark regarding the firms’ earnings.