Standard Bank Group Ltd., the South African lender that operates Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc in Nigeria, on Friday said that the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria has exceeded its powers when it ruled that the Stanbic IBTC had made material misstatements in its financial accounts and recommended a fine.
According to lawyers working for the South African bank, Nigeria's Financial Reporting Council fine against Stanbic of 1 billion naira ($5 million) don’t comply with proper processes.
The Stanbic unit’s auditor, KPMG, has confirmed it stands by its opinion on the 2013 and 2014 financial statements, the bank said.
The financial regulatory body suspended the registration to sign off on financial statements of four past and current Stanbic, including Chief Executive Officer Sola David-Borha and Chairman Atedo Peterside. The issue under dispute is how to account for cross-border payments, according to Standard Bank, which said Stanbic has been treating payments to units of the lender in other African countries as liabilities.
Stanbic maintains that there were no material misstatements in its financial accounts for 2013 and 2014 according to statements sent to Per Second News earlier in the week.
The payments “should continue to be reflected as liabilities, given the increasing difficulties in obtaining regulatory approval for cross-border payments,” Standard Bank said Friday. The Nigerian unit said Oct. 27 that its directors “have not been ousted.”
The bank maintained that the books of Stanbic IBTC have been fully disclosed and provide a true and fair view of its assets and liabilities, profits and losses, and its overall financial position.
It accused the FRCN of ignoring laid down process in preference for self-help and media publicity in the manner it chose to make the 'inaccurate' allegations.
Per Second News gathered that Standard Bank has been fined by regulators in the U.K. and South Africa for failures in anti-money-laundering controls. It may be among banks facing a U.S. investigation for precious metal price manipulation, people with knowledge of the matter said in February.
It has been named in a U.S. class action suit that claims the lender, and others, manipulated platinum and palladium prices. Standard Bank was also named in the South African Competition Commission’s rand-rigging probe, which has yet to be concluded, according to Bloomberg.
Stella Igwe-Adesoga
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