(Thisday Online)

IBTC Chartered Bank Plc (IBTC) has entered into a strategic partnership with Credit Suisse (formerly Credit Suisse First Boston), one of the world’s leading financial services firm with a view to managing a portion of Nigeria’s foreign reserves.
A joint agreement in this regard between the two institutions, THISDAY gathered, was submitted to the apex bank about two weeks ago.

IBTC now becomes the third bank to seal a deal geared towards managing part of the nation’s juicy foreign reserves, which stood at about $33 billion last April. Zenith Bank Plc and JPMrogan Chase signed theirs couple of weeks ago to be Global Custodians while First Bank and HSBC sealed theirs Tuesday.

The CBN Governor, Professor Charles Soludo, had December 2005, during end of year address to the staff of the apex bank, titled Towards a Stronger Monetary Authority and Financial System said that any Global Custodian wishing to manage Nigeria's external reserves in 2006 must be ready to partner with one or more local banks to develop them into world class players.
He disclosed that the appointment of Global Custodian for reserves management will be concluded early this year and that the decision to ensure local participation was in fulfillment of one of the incentives under the Banking Sector Consolidation Guidelines.

Soludo added that any bank with $1 billion (N130 billion) in capital base will receive at least $500 million reserves to manage. The apex bank also recently released guidelines for Nigerian banks desirous of managing the country's foreign reserves in fulfillment of its resolve to encourage and assist them become global financial players.

Credit Suisse which has almost 20 years experience in managing central bank assets with a dozen central banks around the world has a double A rating (AA-) from Fitch, while IBTC which was voted Best Fund Manager in Nigeria in 2005 by THISDAY Newspapers, also has a domestic AA rating from Agusto & Co. Ironically, Credit Suisse was also selected as the Best International Bank in Nigeria in 2005 by THISDAY. Together, therefore, the two banks bring an outstanding record of asset management internationally and domestically. IBTC and Credit Suisse, THISDAY gathered, have demonstrated a truly strategic partnership over the past five years across investment banking, corporate banking as well as asset management which has resulted in meaningful knowledge transfer and cross-staffing of teams on a number of highly visible completed and pending transactions.