The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Olayemi Cardoso, has announced that the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the CBN has resolved to retain the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) at 27.50%.
Cardoso told a news conference after the MPC meeting on Tuesday in Abuja that the Committee also retained the asymmetric corridor at +500/-100 around the MPR.
The CRR was retained at 50% for deposit money banks and 16% for merchant banks at 16%, while the liquidity ratio is still retained at 30.00%.
Cardosa also announced that eight bank have met the minimum requirement for the forbearance regime prescribed by the CBN.
According to him, the forbearance requirements were prescribed by the CBN to safeguard the financial system stability and ensure credible and orderly exit from the regulatory forbearance regime introduced during the COVID-19 crisis,
These measures, he explained, were designed to support affected banks in complying with prudential requirements while facilitating a smooth exit from temporary regulatory concessions.
Cardoso said also that the measures were temporary measures to align with global standards under Basel II.
He said that the measures were not new nor unique to Nigeria, but were designed to help banks create buffers during transitional periods.
The apex bank governor disclosed that Guarantee Trust Bank (GTB) was one of the first set of banks to meet the requirements and commended the bank for successfully raising capital from the London Stock Exchange (LSE) to meet the requirements.
GIK/APA