… Profit declines in Q3 2020
Legal cases involving the United Bank for Africa (UBA) rose to 911 in the third quarter ended September 30, 2020.
The total amount claimed by parties in the lawsuits against the Bank is estimated at N464.62 billion N472.04 billion, according to the bank’s filing at the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
Armadanews gathered that the lawsuits pertain mainly to excessive/wrongful charges, loss of business profits, seizure of collateral, frauds, among others and the bank is the defendant in most of the cases.
The Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) has repeatedly advised banks to embrace alternative dispute resolution mechanisms over traditional litigation as a way to scale down the number of lawsuits involving the financial institutions.
In spite of the advice, the number of court cases involving the Tier-1 lender has continued to rise. In 2015, the UBA was involved in 650 legal cases, with the total amount claimed in the cases against the lender put at N486.92 billion.
Banks are required to disclose their involvement in lawsuits, the severity of the lawsuits as well as and how much claims they could be made to pay in the event the suits are resolved in favour of the other parties.
In a regulatory statement filed with the NSE on its nine months performance, UBA disclosed that it is currently involved in 911 legal cases, with total amount of claims put at N472.04.
The Bank stated: “In the ordinary course of business, the Bank “is currently involved in 911 legal cases (2019: 644). The total amount claimed in the cases against the Bank is estimated at N464.62 billion (2019: N472.04 billion).
“The directors having sought the advice of professional legal counsel, are of the opinion that no significant liability will crystalise from these cases beyond the provision made in the financial statements. There were no material litigation settlements during the period.”
Nigerian Banks face thousands of legal suits every year, which often result in huge legal claims, which in turn hamper their profit and by extension, shareholders’ returns.
UBA’s quarter three (Q3 2020) profit before tax (PBT) dropped to N90.372 billion compared to N98.233 billion posted in the corresponding period of 2019. Profit for the period dipped N77.132bn from N81.628bn in the prior year.
Deposits from customers dipped to N83.2bn from N94.016bn in 2019. Basic and diluted earnings per share dropped to N2.16k from N2,32k.
Gross earnings for the review period, were up marginally by 5.99 per cent to N454.4 billion, from N428.7 billion posted in September 2019.