AN APPRAISAL OF MOBILE BANKING OPERATION IN NIGERIAN BANK

AN APPRAISAL OF MOBILE BANKING OPERATION IN NIGERIAN BANK (A CASE STUDY OF FCMB PLC, IKOT EKPENE)

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

• Background of the Study

Banking has come a long way from the time of ledger card and other manuel filling systems. Most banks have today have electronic system to handling voluminous tasks of information retrieval, storage and processing irrespective of whether they are all automated or not banks by their nature are continuous basis. Worldwide, the greatest innovation that has taken place in 20^th Century is in the realm of information technology.

The introduction of computer and advance in communication have transformed the global electronic landscape and have particular put the banking industry on an accelerated pace of development. The information revolution has lead to the convergence of computing and telecommunication network covering the world through cable and satellite information super ways. Global network have dismantled national boundaries as well as barriers and created a global village where one can access information from any part of the world but a mere touch of button. The computer is of course an established tool for achieving a competition edge and optional resources allocation.

The real development has resulted in the introduction of electronic (online) banking by many banking institutions all over the world. The most obvious banking application of computers are customers services. Computerized banks respond immediately to request from customers for statement of accounts balance and activity enquires through Automated teller machine (ATM). It should however be noted that electronic banking is derived from the succor recorded in information technology.

The entity from which the bank was founded city securities limited, was established in 1977 incorporated as a private limited liability company on 20 April 1982 and granted a banking licence on 11 August 1983. It was the first bank to be established in Nigeria without government of foreign support on 15 July 2004, FCMB changed it’s status from a private limited liability company to a public limited liability company and was listed on the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) by introduction on 21 December 2004.

In November 2010, both Finbank and First City Monument Bank (FCMB) announced that FCMB has expressed interest in requiring shareholding and become the strategic investor in FinBank, another Nigeria Commercial Bank that was undercapitalized. In February 2012, following regulatory approval, FCMB acquired 100% shareholding and began integration of Finbank in an existing operation and First City Monument Bank has a number of active non-bank subsidiaries, which together with the bank, form the first city group. Members of the group include the following companies.

• FCMB capital Markets limited – Investment banking & Advisory services – Lagos, Nigeria
• FCMB (United Kingdom) Limited – Investment banking – London, United Kingdom
• CSL Stockbrokers Limited – stock brokerage service – Lagos, Nigeria
• Legacy pension fund Administration – Pension Fund Administrators – Abuja, Nigeria
• Credit Direct Limited – Microfinance lending – Lagos, Nigeria

The shares of stock of First City Monument Bank are listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, where they trade under the symbol: FCMB. The current detailed shareholding in the bank, following the merger with Finbank, is not publicly available.

The bank maintains its headquarters in Lagos, Nigeria’s financial capital and largest city. As of July 2012, it maintains over 310 networked branches in all 36 states of the federal republic of Nigeria, making it the 7^th largest Nigerian bank, by branch network. FCMB had 133 branches before it merged with finbank, which has 180 branches. FCMB also maintains a branch in the United Kingdom and a Representative Office in the Republic of South Africa.

In the Chairman of the 15 member board of Directors is Jonathan Long. Ladi Balogun Serves as the Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer.

1.2   Statement of the Problem

Mobile banking is a driving force that changes the landscape of the banking fundamentally in particular towards a more competitive industry. It has blurred thee boundaries between different financial institutions enable new financial products and services and make existing financial service available in different packages.

It is not surprising that the application of mobile banking in Nigeria has numerous problems ranging from insecurity of financial transactions, obscene of proper legal and regulatory frame work for electronic banking potential risks of