Nigeria's FUGAZ banks—Access Holdings, FirstHoldco, GTCO, UBA, and Zenith Bank—reported a combined pre-tax profit of N4.15 trillion for the full year 2025. This marks an 18% decrease from the N5.06 trillion recorded in 2024.

The decline was primarily attributed to a sharp drop in net trading and foreign exchange gains, coupled with an increase in impairment charges and operating expenses.

Despite the headline drop, the banks' core operations showed resilience. Combined interest income grew by 17.66% to N14.49 trillion, up from N12.31 trillion in 2024. Interest income from loans and advances to customers was the largest contributor, at N7.2 trillion, an 18% increase from N6.13 trillion in the prior year. Income from investments in treasury bills, bonds, and other financial assets followed, yielding N6.21 trillion, a 16.8% year-on-year increase from N5.31 trillion in 2024.

A strategic shift is evident, with the gap between lending and securities income narrowing. UBA and GTCO notably generated more income from investment in securities than from lending in 2025. UBA earned N1.47 trillion from securities versus N864.5 billion from loans, while GTCO reported N789.8 billion from securities against N559.4 billion from lending.

Conversely, Access Holdings, FirstHoldco, and Zenith Bank continued to earn more from loans. Access Holdings saw N1.95 trillion in loan income compared to N1.35 trillion from securities. Zenith Bank posted N1.82 trillion from loans against N1.64 trillion from securities.

In other financial sector news, Sovereign Trust Insurance (STI) Plc has launched a N5.02 billion rights issue. The insurer is offering 2,510,848,144 ordinary shares at N2.00 per share, on a basis of three new shares for every seventeen held as of March 17, 2026. This move aims to strengthen its capital base and scale underwriting capacity in line with regulatory directives.

The rights issue's acceptance list opened on May 4, 2026, and will close on June 10, 2026. The rights are tradable on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited between May 4, 2026, and June 10, 2026.

Meanwhile, United Capital Plc has successfully completed the recapitalisation of its Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)-regulated subsidiaries. This achievement comes over 14 months before the June 30, 2027, compliance deadline for the revised minimum capital requirements. United Capital Investment Banking, United Capital Asset Management, United Capital Trustees, and United Capital Securities have each met and exceeded the new thresholds without external capital raising.