A NEW chapter for banking will open in the new year, with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) giving banks a three-month deadline to decide their future.
From October 4, the apex bank will begin the countdown for banks to decide the categories in which they want to play.
The CBN Wednesday listed the new categories as: International Bank, National Bank, Regional Bank and Merchant Bank.
The CBN position is a follow-up to the draft guideline issued early April as part of the plan for a new banking regime.
On this occasion, however, the apex bank dropped the requirement for international practice from N100 billion to N50 billion.
It dropped also the requirement for regional practice from N15 billion to N10 billion and kept faith with the requirement for national banking licence at N25 billion. The CBN, however, introduced a merchant banking category, which will require N15 billion capital base.
