Bank threatens to remove Nigeria from key bond index

monjola sotubo

June 8, 2015 6:40 PM

The liquidity restoration will ease the challenges currently being faced by foreign investors who are tracking the benchmark.

JP Morgan CEO, Jamie Dimon

JP Morgan has threatened to remove Nigeria from its Government Bond Index (GBI-EM) if the country doesn’t restore liquidity to its currency market.

The bank has extended the initial deadline given to Nigeria by six months, meaning the country will be ejected by December if it doesn’t comply with the directive.

“Nigeria’s status in the GBI-EM series will be finalized in the coming months but no later than year-end,” JPMorgan said.

JP Morgan added Nigeria to the widely followed index in 2012, when liquidity was improving, making it only the second African country after South Africa to be included.

The bank, which runs the most commonly used emerging debt indexes, placed Nigeria on a negative index watch in January and then said it would assess its place on the index over a three to five months period.

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