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Abstract
To enhance competitiveness, efficiency and the capacity to play the fundamental roles of the financial sector, reforms are inevitable. Modern economies are financial sector driven; sustainable economic growth and stability cannot be achieved without an effective and stable banking sector. It was in a bid to strengthen the competitive and operational capabilities of the banks in Nigeria with a view towards returning global and public confidence to the Nigerian banking sector and the economy in general that the Central bank of Nigeria instituted some restructuring strategies. This paper, sets out to examine the experience of the commercial banks during the restructurings. It identified the major restructuring strategies of the CBN which are the introduction of Universal Banking and the Abolishment, Recapitalization, introduction of Electronic banking, the establishment of Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria and the classification of commercial banks. The main objective of this study is to compare the performance of the commercial banks in Nigeria before and after restructurings. The sources of data are both primary and secondary. Four commercial banks were selected, two hypotheses were formulated and questionnaire was used to find out the impact of the reforms on the commercial banks, Simple percentages and chi-square test statistics were used as tools for data analysis and based on the analysis we conclude that the restructuring exercise improved the performances of the banks and best approaches to banking sector restructuring was recommended. Keywords – Restructuring, Mergers, Acquisition, Universal Banking, Recapitalization