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The Central Bank of Nigeria has directed banks to send funds in dormant accounts, unclaimed balances to apex bank.

The CBN hereby issues the revised Guidelines on the Management of Dormant Accounts, Unclaimed Balances and Other Financial Assets in Banks and Other Financial Institutions in Nigeria to banks and other financial institutions for implementation. This is sequel to the conclusion of the review of the Guidelines on the Management of Dormant Accounts and Other Unclaimed Funds by Banks and Other Financial Institutions in Nigeria issued in October 2015.

The revised Guidelines, which operationalizes Section 72 of the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020, followed engagement and consultations with relevant stakeholders, whose comments and recommendations were considered in the review process. It, amongst others, standardises the management of dormant accounts, unclaimed balances and financial assets, and outlines the procedure for the administration of these balances, funds, and assets by banks and other financial institutions in Nigeria.

The modalities for the transfer of the relevant balances/funds/ assets to the CBN, together with the revised templates for the rendition of quarterly returns to Banking Supervision Department or Other Financial Institutions Supervision Department (as the case may be) will be communicated subsequently stablog9ja

This Guidelines supersedes the Guidelines on the Management of Dormant Accounts and Other Unclaimed Funds by Banks and Other Financial Institutions in Nigeria, issued in October 2015 and takes effect immediately.

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Halliburton (HAL) shares slumped Friday as the big oilfield services provider’s U.S. business declined.

The company reported second-quarter adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.80, in line with forecasts. Revenue rose less than 1% to $5.83 billon, missing estimates.

Revenue in North America was down 8% to $2.48 billion, which Halliburton said was primarily caused by “decreased pressure pumping services in U.S. land and lower activity across multiple product service lines in the Gulf of Mexico.” It was higher in all other regions, with total international revenue jumping 8% to $3.35 billion.

By segment, Completion and Production revenue fell 2.2% to $3.40 billion, while it increased 4.7% to $2.43 billion for Drilling and Evaluation.

CEO Jeff Miller said that, in international markets, “we see strong demand for Halliburton’s services, high activity levels, and equipment tightness across all major basins.”

He said that that the company's strategy to maximize value in North America “delivers shareholder value,” and the company expects to “continue to deliver strong returns through this cycle.”

Halliburton shares were down 4.9% at $34.65 in recent trading, putting the stock into negative territory for 2024.

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Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) is set to report second-quarter earnings after the bell Tuesday with investors likely to be watching for sustained cloud growth and updates on artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives.

The tech giant is projected to report revenue of $84.3 billion, according to estimates compiled by Visible Alpha, representing a 13% rise over the year-ago period. Net income is expected to come in at $23 billion, or $1.85 per share, an increase from the second quarter of 2023.

Investors will likely watch for sustained growth in Google Cloud, as the cloud segment revenue could help ease investor concerns around big tech's increased spending to invest in AI.

Analysts expect cloud revenue of $10.22 billion, according to consensus estimates from Visible Alpha, representing growth from the quarter prior and the year-ago period.

The company could provide investors with updates on projects like its AI assistants, Gemini Live and Project Astra, which could help Alphabet compete with Microsoft-backed (MSFT) OpenAI. Alphabet may offer insights into how AI Overview is affecting Google Search.

It might also offer context about its interest in dealmaking. The company is reportedly in talks with cybersecurity startup Wiz to acquire it in a deal worth roughly $23 billion. If the deal goes through, it would be the largest acquisition the tech giant has ever made. Google was also recently linked with a possible acquisition of HubSpot (HUBS), though it has reportedly moved on.

Alphabet shares have gained nearly 30% since the start of the year, at $178.43 as of 11:45 a.m. ET Friday.

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A retired Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Amina Adamu Augie, has lamented the indecent dressing among female lawyers in the country, Nigerian Tribune is reporting.

Justice Augie, while speaking on Friday, in Abuja at an event organised by the Nigerian Bar Association Women Forum (NBA-WF) Abuja chapter, with the theme: “Indecent Dressing: Its Effect on Female Lawyers Dress Code”, called on lawyers to see themselves as an important part of somebody else’s life.

To her, lawyers should dress in a way that inspires confidence because lawyers are supposed to be presentable when they are representing their clients. She said, “When you come before me as a lawyer and you are not properly dressed, no one will tell you to dress well by the time you are appearing before me again because I will not give you audience and I will also talk to your Principal, why he allowed you to leave the Chambers without being properly dressed.

As a lawyer, you need to know who you are because it is when you identify who you are that you will be able to instill confidence in others and your client. No lawyer dress indecently in my court that I spare. As a lawyer, we should be disciplined, so that when you say you are a lawyer, you are able to instill confidence in others so that when you speak, they will listen to you”, she said.

In his remarks, former Attorney-General and Commissioner of Justice in Sokoto state, Dr. Suleiman Usman, SAN, said no lawyer who is indecently dressed should be given audience in court.

According to him, a lawyer that is indecently dressed in court is setting bad precedence for those coming behind. “To be properly dressed as a lawyer is very important because it says a lot about who you are. It could lead to disciplinary action because bad conduct of any lawyer could rub off on others.For a lawyer to be respected and win the confidence and trust of his client, he must present himself in a decent manner”, he said.

A member of the Governing Council of the Nigerian Bar Association Women Forum, Hajia Mohammed Adama, in her speech, called on parents to be good examples to their daughters. According to her, as lawyers and mothers, the forum is expected to instill good values in the younger ones. We are lawyers and we impact positively society and society looks up to us as well, so, we must conduct ourselves in a a manner that is acceptable, including our dress. You will agree with me that with what you see on the internet daily, our societal value is eroding and we cannot allow that to creep into the legal profession. The legal profession is a noble one and we cannot allow indecent dressing to impact negatively on the good name that, the profession earned many years ago,” Adama said.

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A defective update from cybersecurity company CrowdStrike (CRWD) caused a global outage Friday in Microsoft’s (MSFT) platforms, affecting a wide range of organizations and businesses, including airlines, banks, the London Stock Exchange, media outlets, government agencies, and others.

CrowdStrike said it identified the source of the issue and a fix has been deployed, though some businesses are still dealing with the effects of the outage, sending shares of CrowdStrike plummeting over 10% in early trading Friday.

CrowdStrike is a cybersecurity company that provides security software to customers and partners including many cloud platforms used by organizations globally. Major cloud platform providers partnered with CrowdStrike include Microsoft Azure, Alphabet's (GOOGL) Google Cloud, and Amazon's (AMZN) Amazon Web Services (AWS).

These cloud platforms are also used by businesses across industries, from healthcare to financial services, telecommunications, media, and more, extending the reach of CrowdStrike's update defect. Microsoft Azure alone serves 95% of Fortune 500 companies.

A CrowdStrike update defect caused an outage affecting customers using Windows, Microsoft's operating system, CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said around 5:45 a.m. ET Friday. The issue led to disruptions across industries, due to the wide reach of CrowdStrike's customer base.

There was a spike in outages with Microsoft services like Xbox Live, Microsoft 365, and Teams, according to DownDetector. Some businesses affected included major banks like Bank of America (BAC), social media companies such as Meta (META), and others.

Several airports grounded flights, impacting airlines like Delta Air Lines (DAL), United Airlines (UAL), and American Airlines (AAL), among others. The outage also affected government agencies like the U.K.'s National Health Service.

CrowdStrike said a fix has been deployed and Microsoft reported that some Azure users have recovered, while others are still dealing with the effects of the outage.

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