Fidelity Bank Plc has emerged as one most  impressive banks in the country as it carted away three awards at this year’s edition of the Clearing House Merit Awards, organized by the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System (NIBBS).

Fidelity won the most efficient bank in Clearing Data Transmission and the Most Punctual Bank while the bank’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Reginald Ihejiahi, was given a Merit Award in recognition of his contributions to the growth of the nation’s payment system, respectively.

The Bank beat Zenith Bank Plc and First Bank Plc to second and third positions respectively. Fidelity was particularly commended for running a year_long error_free data transmission and consequently cutting down on time and resources often deployed by NIBSS in perfecting payment.

The bank was said to have mounted an excellent backup strategy and robust support system that ensured a seamless data transmission thereby making the job of interbank settlement a much easier one for NIBSS.

Fidelity’s second award on the night came from the sheer professionalism of the bank’s staff whose punctuality was deemed worthy of recognition with an award as the punctuality of the staff is assumed to have contributed immensely to the timeliness in data transmission.

Presenting the awards to the Executive Management of the bank in Lagos, recently, the General Manager of NIBSS, Mr. Olaniyi Ajao explained that Fidelity richly deserved the honour for operating for a whole year without a single error in its data transmission.

Mr. Ajao who spoke through Mr. Olugbenga Kayode, an Assistant General Manager in NIBSS further explained that the more intervention NIBSS has to make in perfecting the transaction of particular bank, the less point such a bank earns pointing out that Fidelity was outstanding because for a whole year, he had no cause to find out where the bank’s data transmission office was located in Lagos.

Commenting on the honour bestowed on Fidelity, the Managing Director, Mr. Reginald Ihejiahi observed that the bank had never taken its activities in the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) lightly.

According to him, clearing operations constitute the backbone of the payment system and the heart and soul of banking operations as the efficiency of the clearing system is assumed to be a key determinant of the level of public confidence in the banking sector.

He assured that Fidelity would not rest on its oars as a result of the awards but would see the honours as an incentive for more hard work.