The evolution of financial technology may have disrupted the conventional metrics for classifying banks into tier-one or tier-two players, introducing another set of important criteria.

Banks are often categorised on the strength of their assets and capitalisation. But the Founder of Proshare Nigeria, Olufemi Awoyemi, said the new banking era has added a new set of benchmarks, which industry players could only ignore at their peril.

The analyst, who described banks as opposed to banking as dying, said asset and share capital-based metrics may be insufficient to “calibrate banks into tiers” and that the new era is being driven by agility.

He gave the view as a guest speaker at a media parley of the Association of Corporate Affairs Managers of Banks (ACAMB) held in Lagos at the weekend. He said the new banking structure could only survive the disruption by mixing financial technology with regulatory fluidity.

Awoyemi charged the host to rethink their roles in the emerging banking sector, saying corporate affairs as a nomenclature has little or no reliance on the industry operation. Only those who have transitioned into real-time reputation risk managers would survive the emerging onslaught.

Reputation risk management, he argued, is not an option but a necessity for every bank. Besides its significance in proactively mitigating potential crises, he noted, a functional reputation management operation is a governance directive of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Awoyemi highlighted the differences between corporate affairs and reputation management practices, saying that the latter commissions independent evidence-based market analysis while the former engages in de-marketing competitors and employs blackmail in preventing negative reports.

He also engaged the media professionals on how to develop the financial system, saying journalists are not harbingers of bad news but “trained to report evolving development dispassionately, clearly and constructively, using available data as the cornerstone of the report or story”.

Journalists should follow a story where it takes them and not where they prefer, he said, stressing the importance of an unbiased mind in financial reporting.

“The journalist’s mind may be naturally skeptical, but that does not mean it should be biased towards bad outcomes. If the balance of facts suggests that the result of a policy or event is positive, so be it. The journalist is not a hangman but an observer and writer,” he said in his presentation.