Union Berates CBN, Ministry Over Bank Policies

The leadership of the Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance  and Financial Institutions (ASSBIFI) has decried the policy inconsistency  of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Federal  Ministry of Finance on the banking sector.
In a statement issued on Wednesday after the union’s National Executive  Council (NEC) meeting held in Ogun State and signed by  its National President, Comrade  Oyinkan Olasanoye, the union said that the CBN and Federal  Ministry of Finance’s  policies have negatively  affected the banking sector, stagnated the  nation’s economic growth and hindered investment.
Olasanoye  stated that the union wants both bodies  as regulatory institutions on the banking and financial institutions to fashion out policies that will push the nation’s financial sector to enviable  height, as against counter productive  policies that pose impediments to investments needed to turn the nation’s economy around.
The union’s boss further lamented the prevailing system of deposit mobilization in banks on the current agenda of the privatization of the banks into the hands of few  businessmen  with the  primary purpose to make profit without professional service and efficiency in the banking sector.
She  pointed out that the bank owners  and bank customers are not enjoying the new  banking policies and approach  that had brought policy instability to the  banking system unlike the old banking system and pattern that valued core  principles  to mobilise deposits and move workers from one step to another.
The union leader expressed  dissatisfaction over the prevailing banks drive  to use female bankers to mobilise deposits  from big customers as well as again promotion in their workplaces without recourse to the ethics of the banking profession, stressing that the  union had written  to the banks against such discriminating policy.
She added that the union has concluded arrangement  to inaugurate loss of job insurance scheme  for its  members who had  lost their jobs in the financial sector.
Olasanoye  appealed for a human face policy from the appropriate  authorities in the banking and financial institutions  sector to save  jobs and promote investment.