The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has licensed two new deposit money banks with regional authorization. The two banks located in Victoria Island, Lagos include Suntrust Bank Nigeria limited and ProvidusBank Plc.
With these two banks the financial service industry now has 21 commercial banking licence, one non-interest banking licence, four merchant banks, three financial holding companies and 974 microfinance banks.
The CBN’s breakdown of the list of deposit money banks and financial holding companies operating in Nigeria as at May 25, 2016 revealed that there are 10 commercial banking licence with international authorisation. They include Access Bank Plc, Diamond Bank Plc, Fidelity Bank Plc, First City Monument Bank Plc, First Bank Nigeria Limited, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc,Skye Bank Plc, Union Bank Of Nigeria Plc, United Bank Of Africa Plc, and Zenith Bank Plc.
Others are commercial banking licence with national authorisation including, Citibank Nigeria Limited, Ecobank Nigeria Plc, Heritage Bank Limited, Keystone Bank Limited, Stanbic Ibtc Bank Plc, Standard Chartered Bank Limited, Sterling Bank Plc, Unity Bank Plc, and Wema Bank Plc.