Following the successful merger of Heritage Banking Company
Limited and Enterprise Bank Limited, the emerging Heritage Bank Limited has
concluded the integration of its systems to align the operations of the bank in
all its locations across the country seamlessly.
The Chairman of the Board of the new Heritage Bank Limited
Mr. Akinsola Akinfemiwa OON stated this while addressing a cream of news and
business editors from major newspapers and magazines at a media parley hosted
by the bank in Lagos recently. He disclosed that the bank, which is still
riding on the euphoria of the successful completion of the merger is set for a
seamless operation that will satisfactorily meet the huge expectations of its
teeming customers and stakeholders.
Akinfemiwa, who explained that the bank has, to this end,
integrated its “processes, technology, people, and branch networks” to pave way
for an efficient and smooth banking service for its customers all over the
country and beyond, added that “we have also rebranded all our branches and
trained all the staff on all aspects of our core operational services. We have
equally harmonised our products, customers and data at all our Experience
Centres,” he said.
According to analysts, the new Heritage Bank Limited which
emerged from the union of two banking institutions, though similar but with
very unique value services has seen the emergence of an enviable corporate
brand poised to carve a niche in the banking and financial services sector.
Akinfemiwa explained further that the new stature and reach
of Heritage Bank Limited will culminate in strength which will see the bank
operating in a different and special way to satisfy customers and even outflank
competition. According to him, Heritage Bank is an innovative and
service-oriented bank and very unlike any other bank. “We are going to use
technology to push our operations,” he said.
The new development has fully consolidated Heritage Bank’s
position as a national financial institution that operates and renders full
commercial banking services across the country. The bank, which hitherto
operated as a regional bank, with 15 Experience Centres, has increased its
presence to about 200 service outlets which includes over 165 Experience
Centres, 33 Automated Banking Centres, over 365 Automated Teller Machines (ATM)
and over 4,800 Point of Sell (POS) terminals spread across the country.
Akinfemiwa agreed with analyst opinion that this monumental
achievement at the bank marks a new era in banking in Nigeria as the
integration of two entities with such similar values, excellent and
professional staffing, strong branch network, has led to the emergence of a
banking institution (Heritage Bank Limited) that is poised for excellence and
quality financial services.
"In this new dispensation, we are now a bigger and better
bank that is better positioned to offer unparalleled banking services, which
spread across 165 Experience Centres and counting, 33 Automated Banking
Centres, 365 ATMs and over 4800 POS terminals across the states.
"We shall harness the best of two worlds combined in terms
of our innovative products, bespoke technology and extended branch network
manned by a team of highly committed and tenacious people in our journey from a
regional bank to a strong tier-2 player in the industry," he said.
The visibly elated Chairman of Board reiterated that
Heritage Bank is poised to continue to blaze new trails and break new grounds
in the banking sector."We are positioned to continue to break new grounds in
innovative banking services. We will continue to do things that have never been
done in Nigerian banking; we will partner with our customers to create,
preserve and transfer wealth across generations," he said.
He added that the
new Heritage Bank Limited "… is also driven by a set of principles that make it
the embodiment of innovation wrapped in modest elegance and knowledge, enabling
it to share and lead by example the emergence of a new attitude towards
financial services, the people that provide them as well as those that benefit
from them," he said.
Corroborating the Chairman’s submissions, the Group Managing
Director/Chief Executive Officer of the bank, Ifie Sekibo, reassured the senior
journalists of the bank’s commitment to building on the existing quest for
quintessential banking service delivery, guided by passion and sustained
through its brand architecture that exudes quality service, performance,
respect, integrity, innovation, tenacity and excellence as core values.
"We are sure we are going to get a much bigger organisation
that will have the same ethos as Heritage Bank as it stands today, where
innovation, transfer of wealth, creation of wealth is our mantra, and that is
what is going to happen," Sekibo added.
Sekibo further explained that though the bank will not
wish to be boxed into a niche mentality, it will want to be seen to support
Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SME). He projected that within the next
three to five years, the bank will strive to bring at least, three SMEs to the
capital market. "We want to be expert in the areas of nurturing SMEs," he
added.
Sekibo, who reiterated the bank’s commitment to innovative
banking services to meet the needs of its customers maintained that Heritage
Bank Limited is a product of innovation and therefore encourages deployment of
innovative platforms.
"We ride on the waves of innovative thinking, we thrive on
an innovative ecosystem, we encourage and deploy innovative platforms", he
said, adding that innovation is inevitable for the banking industry due to
changing dynamics across the globe which has penetrated banking.
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