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.
