What Happened to Diamond Bank Shares?

Diamond Bank Plc no longer exists as a listed company. It merged into Access Bank Plc under a court-sanctioned scheme, and its 23.16 billion shares were delisted from the Nigerian Stock Exchange on 1 April 2019. Every Diamond Bank shareholder on the register at the effective date received ₦1.00 in cash for each share plus 2 Access Bank shares for every 7 Diamond Bank shares. Those Access Bank shares were later exchanged one for one into Access Holdings Plc shares.

How the Merger Worked

Access Bank signed a memorandum of agreement with Diamond Bank on 17 December 2018. Shareholders of both banks then voted at court-ordered meetings, the Federal High Court sanctioned the scheme, and trading in Diamond Bank shares was suspended from 20 March 2019. The whole business, assets and liabilities of Diamond Bank passed to Access Bank, Diamond Bank's share capital was cancelled, and the company was dissolved without being wound up.

What Diamond Bank Shareholders Received

• Cash: ₦1.00 for every Diamond Bank share held on the effective date, paid electronically to the bank account on the shareholder's mandate.
• Shares: 2 new Access Bank ordinary shares of 50 kobo each for every 7 Diamond Bank shares of 50 kobo each.
• Fractions: no fractional shares were issued. A fraction was rounded up to one whole scheme share.
• Dissenting holders: shareholders who voted against the scheme received the same cash and shares as everyone else.

As an illustration of the arithmetic only, a holder of 7,000 Diamond Bank shares was entitled to 2,000 Access Bank shares and ₦7,000 in cash, before any later corporate actions on the Access shares.

Holders Without a CSCS Account, and Unpaid Cash

The new Access Bank shares were credited electronically to shareholders' Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) accounts. A holder with no CSCS account, typically someone who still held Diamond Bank shares on paper, was given a Registrar Identification Number and the shares were kept under the registrar's custody at the CSCS. Cash that could not be paid to an untraceable holder was to be held by the registrar, then called United Securities Limited, in an account set up for the scheme consideration.

United Securities Limited changed its name to Coronation Registrars Limited in November 2020. Coronation Registrars is the registrar named in Access Holdings' 2025 annual general meeting notice, and its registrar pages are at coronation.ng. Before the merger Diamond Bank's own registrar was Centurion Registrars Limited, which is why older dividend warrants carry that name.

What an Old Diamond Bank Certificate Means Today

A Diamond Bank certificate is no longer a live security and cannot be sold. It is evidence of a holding that the scheme converted into Access Bank shares and cash in 2019. If those were never collected, the likely position is that the shares are sitting in a registrar account and the cash is in the scheme consideration account, waiting for the holder or their estate to claim them.

The number of shares today may differ from a simple 2-for-7 calculation. Access Bank restructured into a holding company in 2022, with each Access Bank share exchanged for one Access Holdings share, and any bonus or rights issues since then also change the count. Dividends paid on the Access shares since 2019 may also be unclaimed.

What to Do Next

1. Collect the Diamond Bank certificates, any dividend warrants, the exact registered name and old addresses, and any Clearing House Number (CHN).
2. Check bank statements from April 2019 onwards for a credit of the ₦1.00 per share cash.
3. Write to Coronation Registrars and ask what Access Holdings shares are registered in that name, whether any scheme cash is unpaid, and whether any dividends are outstanding.
4. Complete the registrar's identity and e-dividend mandate forms so outstanding sums can be paid.
5. If you want the shares in a stockbroking account, arrange for them to be credited to your own CSCS account.