By Emmanuel Aziken

ABUJA—The Vaswani brothers have denied claims of contributing to the problems of Equatorial Trust Bank Plc through a non performing loan of N3 billion.

One of the brothers, Sunil Vaswani in a statement yesterday asserted that to the contrary that the brothers through their business interests have maintained a mutually beneficial relationship with ETB since the incorporation of the bank.

The statement issued on his behalf by Stallion Group asserted that the Vaswani brothers through their business group, Stallion have regularly maintained their accounts with ETB within the N5 billion limit agreed between them and the management of the bank. The statement further affirmed that the balance on the facility is presently zero.

The statement was in response to recent news reports naming Premium Seafoods Limited, a subsidiary of Stallion Group as one of the bad debtors to ETB.

The company in a reaction weekend affirmed that Stallion “is one of the bank’s prime customers enjoying a very active and mutually beneficial relationship that commenced with the opening of the bank. The facilities have always been constantly serviced and maintained within approved limits of N 5 billion.’’

The company further stated its support for ongoing efforts by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to sanitize the banking system and pledged its support to the efforts