Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO) Plc has said that its Audited Financial Statements (AFS) for the year ended 31 December 2023, will not be published within the first quarter in line with statutory requirements.
In an advertorial published in some national dailies on Friday, March 24, 2023, entitled “Publication of the Audited Financial Statements for the Year Ended December,31, 2022”, GTCO said the document would be released to the market immediately all requisite approvals are received.
Part of the statement read: “Kindly be informed that Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc’s (the Company) Audited Financial Statements for the year ended December 31, 2022, was approved by the Board of Directors on January 27, 2023, and other requisite approvals required for the publication of the Annual Financial Statements are being processed.
“In view of the foregoing, the Company will publish its annual Financial Statements after receipt of all requisite approvals which may be after the NGX’s regulatory filing date of March 31`, 2023.”
Publicly listed companies on the Nigerian Stock Exchange are mandated to publish their quarterly results within 30 days after the end of each quarter according to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) listing rules. Annual Financial Statements are required to be released within 90 days after the year-end.
However, last year, the capital market regulator informed publicly-listed companies that they can release their yearly financial statements within 60 days if they are unable to submit their earnings report for the fourth quarter, which is 30 days after the quarter.
It was gathered that GTCO has not received regulatory approval to release the earnings report though it confirmed that its board of directors approved the earnings result on January 27, 2023.
The Group reported profit before tax of N169.7billion in Q3 2022, representing an increase of 11.7% over N151.9billion recorded in the corresponding period ended September 2021. The Group’s loan book (net) increased by 2.2% from N1.80trillion recorded as at December 2021 to N1.84trillion in September 2022, while deposit liabilities increased by 6.4% from N4.13trillion in December 2021 to N4.39trillion in September 2022
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Britain’s financial watchdog, had in January 2023, fined the UK subsidiary of Nigeria’s Guaranty Trust Bank, 7.6 million pounds ($9.3m) for what it said were further failures in the bank’s anti-money-laundering systems and controls.
When contacted, the UK financial regulatory confirmed the 525,000 pounds fine issued GT Bank in 2013. In an e-mail issued by Max Clements of the Press Office, Communications Division, the FCA said,
“Repeated misconduct is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Firms must play their part in the fight against financial crime by ensuring they have effective Anti-Money Laundering systems and controls in place.
“Where improvement is required, this should be completed in a timely manner and monitored appropriately,” FCA stated in a background document to the Final Notice issued GT Bank on January 10, 2023, seen by THEWIL. The 50-page document contains the following excerpts in paragraphs 2.4-2.6:
“GT Bank should have played its part in the fight against financial crime by ensuring it had in place effective anti-money laundering (“AML”) systems and controls. These are required in order to mitigate the risk of individuals and organisations using financial institutions to circumvent restrictions designed to prevent them benefitting from assets obtained by illegal means.
“Instead, GT Bank failed to ensure compliance with its regulatory obligations in respect of its systems and controls relating to AML during the relevant period.
“This is not the first time GT Bank has been disciplined by the Authority for serious weaknesses in its AML systems and controls. By a Final Notice, dated 8 August 2013, GT Bank was fined £525,000 by the Authority for similar failings in relation to its AML systems and controls.
“The Authority considers this repeated misconduct to be a direct result of the inability of the senior management within GT Bank, over a prolonged period of time, to formulate and implement an effective
plan capable of addressing the weaknesses identified within its AML and financial crime systems and controls.
“As this behaviour mirrored previous misconduct, the Authority has significantly increased the penalty to be paid by GT Bank.
“GT Bank breached Principle 3 (management and control) of the Authority’s Principles for Businesses (“the Principles”) between 21 October 2014 and 12 July 2019 (“the relevant period”) by failing to take reasonable care to organise and control its AML processes responsibly and effectively, with adequate risk management systems.”
Sam Diala is a Bloomberg Certified Financial Journalist with over a decade of experience in reporting Business and Economy. He is Business Editor at THEWILL Newspaper, and believes that work, not wishes, creates wealth.
