550 sacked as FCMB acquires Finbank

First City Monument Bank, FCMB, in its acquisition bid of Finbank will today determine the fate of about 550 staff of Finbank whose services overlapped with employees of FCMB.

The 550 staff will be given the option to resign and pursue any other career of their choice through the generous severance package being worked out by the management of the two banks.

The package, apart from the financial provisions for those affected, also has counselling and training session that would enable them adapt to a new environment and possibly a small business of their own.

Giving the hint of the progress of the merger between FCMB and Finbank, Managing Director of FCMB, Mr. Ladi Balogun, said in the process of trying to achieve the synergy of the two banks, the decision was taken to close a number of branches of Finbank that were considered not to be viable. Finbank, he said, had a total branch network of 183 and 44 of these branches will be shut down based on the fact that some of them are close to FCMB branches that are profit making and those in some other places that are not profitable.

He disclosed that 320 staff of FCMB were earlier disengaged in preparation for the merger and integration of the two banks.

"We believe that the process has gone very smoothly. Unfortunately about 550 Finbank staff have been given the opportunity to resign, that 550 have almost unanimously taken up the opportunity of the offer to resign. That is a relatively small number when you compare to other banks that have gone through this exercise.

"We are retaining 70 per cent of the staff of Finbank, we also ensure we put in place very robust welfare package for those that will be affected. It includes training budget, which will be used to help prepare them if they want to go into entrepreneurship or if they want to continue in the banking industry; proper counselling, to make sure that the process is well managed and does not create too much shock for them. We have ensured that we have paid very healthy severance package when compared with what has been done by other banks.

"We have retained medical insurance for all employees and four children and we have allowed them to keep all the assets of the banks that they have— their cars, generators and so forth. Of course, any benefits that they are entitled to prior to this exercise, such as gratuity has also been retained. Why staff rationalization is necessary in any merger exercise that one may do is important that we do it with human face; we believe we have done that.