Titan Trust Bank Limited, Nigeria’s youngest commercial bank, is one of the few financial institutions that is adjudged as Corporate Governance compliant banks, by the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).
The bank has continued to deliver exceptional banking services by making financial services easy and accessible to its teeming customers. The bank is determined to take financial services to every household and make banking experience easy. Titan Trust Bank has pursued an effective drive to include recovery and growth of Nigeria’s economy. Chaired by a former Deputy Governor of Apex Central Bank of Nigeria, Tunde Lemo, Titan Trust Bank has invested substantially in technology and developed fully integrated service models that enable its customers to enjoy banking services through a wide range of channels. The bank is an advocate of innovation, creativity and the use of technology to enhance the lives of its customers.
The bank has avowed to continue striving to ensure that its products and services meet the changing needs of its customers. It often reappraises its processes to ensure that its business conforms to the highest global standards at all times. The management team led by seasoned bankers, Mudassir Amray, the group managing director/CEO, and Adaeze Udensi, PhD, executive director, in the last two years, has been able to position the bank on an upward trajectory with many unprecedented innovations.
Titan Trust is the newest national commercial bank in Nigeria. It commenced operation in October 2019 with a strong capital base and has won some recognition as one of the fastest-growing commercial banks in the country.
The bank celebrated two years of its existence on October 4, 2021, and has since then waxed stronger, being one of the fastest growing financial service providers in Nigeria.
Established with a mission to take advantage of the identified gaps in the banking sector and address the unmet needs of the retail mass market, SMEs and corporates, Titan Trust Bank, has continued to provide seamless banking experience, accurate and relevant information to its customers.
By all standards, Effective corporate governance is critical to the proper functioning of the banking sector and the economy as a whole. Banks perform a crucial role in the economy by intermediating funds from savers and depositors to activities that support enterprise and help drive economic growth. Corporate governance entails the areas of environmental awareness, ethical behavior, corporate strategy, compensation, and risk management. The basic principles of corporate governance are accountability, transparency, fairness, and responsibility. Titan Trust Bank has executed immensely, as a financial institution.
According to a Researcher, the issue of the governance and accountability of corporations has recently come to fore following a wave of high profile corporate scandals and collapses.
Corporate governance is about the accountability mechanism that governs the relations among Shareholders, the Board of Directors, Senior Management, the workers and other stakeholders.
The term corporate governance means decision-making and control procedures in respect of a company’s relations with a wide range of stakeholders or company’s compliance with the provisions of best practice codes.
Titan Trust Bank Plc, under the leadership of Tunde Lemo recognizes that good corporate governance is fundamental to earning and retaining the confidence and trust of its stakeholders. Since establishment, it has provided the structure through which the objectives of the Bank are set and the means to attain those objectives. The Bank’s Principles of Corporate Governance collectively provides the basis for promoting sound corporate governance without hitches.
As a matter of fact, the Bank is guided by corporate governance principles in its governance frameworks and also meets the requirements of its jurisdictions to ensure local compliance.
Titan’s governance framework helps it to discharge its role of providing oversight and strategic counsel in balance with its responsibility to ensure conformance with regulatory requirements and acceptable risk.
Intermittently, shareholders meetings are convened and held in line with the Bank’s Articles of Association and existing statutory and regulatory regimes in an open manner. The meetings have ensured purpose-driven deliberations on issues affecting the Bank’s trajectory are sustained.The meetings are convened within a fair and transparent process and also serves as a medium for fostering interaction between the Board, Management and Shareholders.
Without an iota of doubt, attendance of the Annual General Meeting is open to shareholders or their proxies while proceedings at such meetings are usually monitored by members of the press, representatives of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, Central Bank of Nigeria and Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Bank’s Board ensures that shareholders are provided with adequate notice of the Meeting. An Extraordinary General Meeting may also be convened at the request of the Board or Shareholders holding not less than 10% of the Bank’s paid- up capital.
The Financial Institution’s recently acquired 89.39 per cent equity in Union Bank Nigeria Plc, in a transaction has also improved its financial institution’s corporate governance.
Titan Trust’s chairman and former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Tunde Lemo, said the board and other stakeholders “are delighted as this transaction marks a key step for Titan Trust in its strategic growth journey and propels the institution to the next level in the Nigerian banking sector.”
The deal is a significant leap in the market share of the two-year-old financial institution, while stakeholders are optimistic the acquisition will lead to a turnaround in the fortunes of the bank.
Additionally, Titan Trust Bank encourages an effective whistle-blowing mechanism. This, according to the bank, would go a long way in entrenching good corporate governance.
Recently, the lender launched and deployed the latest version of Oracle’s FCCM module, powering our AML/CFT infrastructure, used in over 120+ sites by top global banks. It has also invested in top-notch infrastructure for AML/KYC, as well as the Oracle Financial Services Analytical Application (OFSAA) to ensure rigorous analysis and measurement of its risk-performance objectives.
The bank’s digital platforms which include: the Titan Mobile Application, Titan Internet Banking platform and the Titan *922# Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) solution, are seamless, fast, reliable and easy to use. Aside from the regular features, its state-of-the-art mobile banking application – the TITAN mobile app has been upgraded with new features such as the generation of referral codes whilst opening accounts, transaction status information, receipt generation for previous transactions, as well as being able to carry out traditional mobile banking services.
In furtherance of its efforts to offer seamless banking services across the country, the bank has also opened two more branches in strategic locations in Lagos with a skilled and professional relationship team dedicated to satisfying the banking needs of the people.
The financial institution recently bagged two awards as the ‘Best New Commercial Banking Brand’ and ‘Fastest Growing Digital Banking Brand in Nigeria for the Year 2021’ at the 2021 annual United Kingdom-based Global Brands Magazine awards. The bank clinched the coveted influential awards in less than two years of its commercial operations.
Olamide Adeniji is a member of the editorial team of TheScript Newspaper
