NDIC Adpots NIBSS to Pay Heritage Bank Depositors, List Steps to Claim Trapped Funds

^{Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has announced the adoption of the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) for payment of insured depositors of the defunct Heritage Bank, citing limitations of the Remita payment platform.}

^{NDIC disclosed this through Pamela Roberts,  its deputy director at the Enugu Zonal Office at the workshop for business editors and members of the Finance Correspondents Association of Nigeria (FICAN) in Lagos.}

^{She said the NDIC relied on Remita for payments since 2013, adding that the platform is having challenges handling large-scale payments.}

^{Roberts said, “The Corporation had used Remita to effect payments from 2013 which had a few limitations in terms of uploading of payments, validity of account name and number etc.}

^{“During the insured payments of Heritage Bank, the Corporation explored the option of using the NIBSS payment platform to facilitate larger number of payments at one time.”}

^{Recall that following the revocation of Heritage Bank’s banking license by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on June 3, 2024, the NDIC was appointed as liquidator and the Corporation, in accordance with Section 12(2) of BOFIA 2020 and Section 55 subsections 1 & 2 of the NDIC Act 2023.}

^{The corporation said in discharge of its deposit guarantee mandate, it began the payment of the insured deposits of N5m maximum per depositor within a record time of four (4) days of the bank closure.}

^{NDIC had said, “This was achieved using Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) as a unique identifier to locate depositors’ alternate accounts in other banks.}

^{“However, depositors with balances exceeding Five Million Naira have been paid the initial insured sum of FN5m, while the remaining balances (classified as uninsured deposits) will be paid as liquidation dividends upon realization of the defunct bank’s assets and recovery of debts owed to the defunct bank.}

^{“This unprecedented achievement of direct payment through BVN-linked alternate accounts without the need for depositors to visit NDIC offices or fill out forms, marks a historic shift for the NDIC in the prompt reimbursement of depositors with payment of about 82.36 per cent of the total insured deposit to date.”}