Following the sanction of the Federal High Court in Lagos on October 25, 2011, we are pleased to inform our esteemed customers of the completion of the merger between Sterling Bank Plc (Sterling Bank) and Equitorial Trust Bank Limited (ETB).  ETB is now fully absorbed into Sterling Bank and both institutions will operate under the Sterling Bank umbrella to serve our customers across 187 branches nationwide. 

In recent years, a number of significant market and regulatory developments in the financial services sector have had material impact on the dynamics of competition among banks operating in Nigeria. During this period, our two institutions took active steps to protect our individual market positions and develop new business opportunities even as we remained mindful of evolving structural changes within the sector.  The one thing that became sufficiently clear over this period was that scale, understood as a measure of deposit generating capacity, branch coverage, funding ability and product distribution capacity, was playing a far more important role in the banking choice of consumers. Having arrived at this conclusion, the Boards of our two institutions took the decision to explore transformational opportunities that can deliver exceptional balance sheet liquidity, significant capital strength and impeccable asset quality to further improve the value proposition of our institutions to clients.  The merger between Sterling Bank and ETB is the product of this vision and we are confident that the combination will substantially improve our capacity to deliver superior value to our stakeholders across board.

The bigger institution will be a stronger partner offering wider choice of products, financing options, professional advice and business support services.  

‘Improved service with better choices’ is the operative mantra behind the merger of our two institutions. Our clear vision is to become the top-of-mind destination i.e. the financial institution of choice for an unmatched range of products, financing options, professional advice and business support services.

If you have further questions on the merger, please contact your relationship officer or a customer service officer at the nearest Sterling Bank or ETB branch or post questions on the Sterling Bank website by clicking the link 

You can access your former etb Internet Banking platform by clicking the link: http://ibank.equitorialtrustbank.com/

Sterling Bank; the one-customer bank.