No lawsuit against CBN will succeed ' Moghalu

The Central Bank of Nigeria has said that no lawsuit against it concerning its regulatory policies will succeed because it complies with laid-down regulations before taking decisions. The Deputy Governor, Financial System Stability, CBN, Dr. Kingsley Moghalu, stated this during the Round-table Conference on Corporate Governance organised by the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators of Nigeria in Lagos on Wednesday.According to a statement by ICSA , Moghalu said the regulatory decisions were not taken overnight by the apex bank as they were subjected to sound legal advice before they were taken.He said, "All the decisions the CBN had taken complied with the law of Nigeria and that is why no suit against it has succeeded. That is our belief. We believe that we sought and obtained sound legal advice, the basis of which we have proceeded to take regulatory actions that we took in the process of recapitalisation of banks and that is our belief that we have complied with the laws."He further added, "Managements of the banks are subjected to supervisory scrutiny and we cannot give an automatic assessment of the management of banks by monitoring from outside and telling you that they are all good."We continue to monitor the banks and if their management is good, there is no problem. The minute you step out of the line, there is a problem." He stressed, "We monitor them on the normal machinery of banking supervision. We supervise the banks regularly. We are undertaking risk-based supervision; that is a very important machinery we have in place."We know there is crisis of confidence and that is why the CBN chose as a deliberate policy to make sure that this time, no bank will fail and no depositor will lose his or her money. It is to address the problem of confidence and we believe this has been done." The President and Chairman of Council, ICSAN, Mr. Olatunde Busari, said that the round-table conference on corporate governance was one of the ways the institute contributed to issues of national interest and give necessary advice on the road map to stakeholders. He said the theme of the conference , Nationalised Banks: In Whose Interest was chosen because of the mixed reactions following the Federal Governments decision to nationalise some banks and to determine the appropriateness or otherwise of this action. Busari said, "With this, we will be more enlightened on why the government has taken a step or the effect the steps have had and whether we are going forward and the lessons to be learnt."
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