Succour may have come the way of customers of Societe Generale Bank of Nigeria Limited (SGBN) as the bank which now operates under the name Heritage Banking Company Limited opens its doors for business today, Tuesday January 29, 2013.

The bank in line with stipulations of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) commenced business today with the verification of its customers. The validation of the account holders of SGBN, is expected to run for one month.

The verification exercise will hold in 11 cities across the nation. The scheduled cities are: Lagos, Ibadan, Ilorin, Asaba, Kaduna, Uyo, Yenagoa,Yola,  Gusau, Abuja and Port-Harcourt.

Leadership gathered that in Lagos the verification exercise will hold in three venues, AIB Plaza in Victoria Island, Unilag guest House in Akoka Yaba and Eko FM Multipurpose Hall in Ikeja.

The CBN recently approved the licence of the bank to operate as a regional bank. According to the terms of the CBN approval, Heritage Banking Company Ltd. which will trade as Heritage Bank is to offer full commercial banking services under a regional bank status.

The letter conveying CBN's approval for grant of Banking Licence to HBC entitled 'Re: Application for a Commercial Banking Licence with Regional Authorisation' was dated December 27, 2012 with reference number FPR/LAD/CON/HBC/02/062, and signed by the CBN director of financial policy and regulations, Chris O. Chukwu.