The central bank of Nigeria (CBN) has jettisoned it’s original plan of dealing with ten FX primary dealers and has appointed 15 of its commercial lenders as primary forex dealers, as the naira tumbled 30 percent after it lifted its peg on the currency, traders said on Monday.
Dealers includes:
Stanbic IBTC Bank,
Standard Chartered Bank,
Citibank,
Zenith Bank,
Access Bank
UBA
Sterling Bank
FCMB
Wema Bank
GTBank
Firstbank
SkyeBank
EcoBank
Diamond Bank
Fidelity Bank
It will be recalled last week Wednesday that the Apex bank rolled out guidelines for primary dealers – banks that will play directly in the market – with conditions that they must have at least N200 billion in shareholders’ funds, N400 billion worth of forex assets and 40% liquidity ratio, although those who meet two of the requirements will qualify.
But in a revised set of guidelines last Friday, the CBN hrown the door open to other banks to participate even if they do not meet the criteria for the choice of 10.
