Following the merger announcement by Access Bank and Diamond bank, fraudsters have been contacting customers of the banks, requesting for their banking details.
Daily Review Online gathered already, customers of Access and Diamond Banks have lost millions of naira since the announcement of the merger. A lady who spoke on the conditions of anonymity said she has lost over a million naira with Diamond Bank after fraudsters who sent her an email containing a migration link, purportedly from the bank on the merger and the urgency of migrating to a new account, hacked her account. She has already lodged a complaint with the bank.
In press release yesterday, Access Bank warned customers to disregard messages urging customers to supply their personal banking details: PIN, one-time passwords; and full card numbers either through SMS or calls or emails.
The Board of Diamond Bank announced the proposed merger with Access Bank, saying it believes that the merger is in the best interest of all stakeholders including, employees, customers, depositors and shareholders and has agreed to recommend the offer to Diamond Bank’s shareholders. Completion of the merger is subject to certain shareholder and regulatory approvals.
“The proposed merger would involve Access Bank acquiring the entire issued share capital of Diamond Bank in exchange for a combination of cash and shares in Access Bank via a Scheme of Merger. Based on the agreement reached by the Boards of the two financial institutions, Diamond Bank shareholders will receive a consideration of N3.13 per share, comprising of N1.00 per share in cash and the allotment of 2 New Access Bank ordinary shares for every 7 Diamond Bank ordinary shares held as at the Implementation Date. The offer represents a premium of 260% to the closing market price of N0.87 per share of Diamond Bank on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (“NSE”) as of December 13, 2018, the date of the final binding offer.
“Immediately following completion of the merger, Diamond Bank would be absorbed into Access Bank and it will cease to exist under Nigerian law. The current listing of Diamond Bank’s shares on the NSE and the listing of Diamond Bank’s global depositary receipts on the London Stock Exchange will be canceled, upon the merger becoming effective,” the board noted.
The merger is expected to be completed in the first half of 2019.
It would be recalled that two days ago, the board of directors of Diamond Bank announced the appointment of Dele Babade as the acting chairman of the board.