ZENITH Bank Plc has admitted to breaching the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) rules on credit facilities to customers.

The bank admitted to this in a statement it posted on its official social media page on Wednesday, June 18, and signed by Michael O. Otu, the company secretary.

Its reaction followed a recent directive by the CBN, mandating banks under regulatory forbearance to halt certain operational activities.

“We refer to the recent circular issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN (Reference No BSD/DIR/CON/LAB/018/008) concerning regulatory forbearance in respect of Single Obligor Limit (SOL) and other credit facilities,” Zenith Bank stated.

The ICIR reported that CBN had, on June 13, in the referenced circular, instructed all the banks with unresolved forbearance exposures to halt dividend payments, defer executive bonuses, and suspend all new investments in offshore subsidiaries.

It was directed to strengthen capital buffers and ensure adequate provisioning against impaired loans, particularly those that risk breaching the regulatory Solvency of Obligations (SOL).

The suspension is to remain in place until affected banks have fully provisioned for their forbearance exposures and phased them out entirely.

A new report titled ‘Nigerian Banks, Cash is King’, released by Renaissance Capital, indicated that Zenith Bank ranked highest among the affected banks, The ICIR reported.

As such, the bank was likely to suspend dividend payments to its shareholders until 2028, arising from its loan exposure and breach of the SOL rule.

The report revealed that Zenith has a significant $1.6 billion loan exposure, accounting for 23 percent of its gross loan book, to rank highest among other tier-1 banks.

In its reaction, Zenith Bank hinted that its exposure under the SOL forbearance relates solely to a single obligor.

“We are confident that this exposure will be brought within the applicable regulatory limit on or before 30 June 2025,” it said.

With respect to the forbearance granted in other credit facilities, the bank hinted that it only applied to two of its customers.

“We have made substantial provisions in respect of facilities and have taken appropriate and comprehensive steps to ensure full provisioning by 30 June 2025,” the bank stated.

The bank added that it expects to have exited all CBN forbearance arrangements by the end of the first half of the year.