In order to ensure strict compliance to the new guide to charges for financial institutions, the Central Bank has revealed that an infraction by the lenders will attract a penalty of N2million.
The financial services regulator announced this on Tuesday through its Twitter handle.
“To guard against excess, unapproved or arbitrary charges by banks and other financial institutions, the Guide to Bank Charges stipulates a penalty of N2 million per infraction,” the apex bank warned.
The apex bank emphasized that the failure by any bank to comply with the directive in respect of any infraction shall attract a further penalty of N2 million daily until the directive is complied with or as may be determined by the CBN from time to time.
In furtherance of its quest to make financial services more accessible and affordable to various stakeholders in the economy, the Central Bank of Nigeria on Sunday reviewed downward most charges for banking services.
With effect from January 1, 2020, charges on electronic funds transfer, for instance, will attract N10 for transactions below N5,000; N25 for those between N5,001 and N50,000, and just N50 for those above N50,000. This is compared to the initial flat rate of N52 per transfer.
“In a bid to encourage financial inclusion and to reduce the burden of bank charges on consumers of financial service, CBN has issued a revised Guide to charges by Banks, Other Financial and Non-Bank Financial institutions in response to the evolution in the financial industry over the last few years,” the apex bank said on its twitter handle on Monday.
The Guide which was first released 15 years ago was revised in 2013 and 2017 in the light of market developments such as innovations in products and/or channels and new industry participants.
The new Guide sent to Banks, Other Financial and Non-bank Financial Institutions as contained in a circular includes, amongst others, a downward review of charges for electronic banking transactions, removal of Card Maintenance Fee (CAMF) on all cards linked to current accounts, reduction in the amount payable for cash withdrawals from other banks’ Automated Teller Machines (Remote-on-us), review of other bank charges to align with market developments, and inclusion of new sections on accountability/responsibility and a sanction regime to directly address instances of excess, unapproved and/or arbitrary charges.
In order to ensure that banks actually attend to every customer’s complaints, CBN has directed banks to log every complaint received from their customers into the Consumer Complaints Management System (CCMS)
The CBN also warned through its tweet on Tuesday that “failure to log and provide the code to the customer will amount to a breach and is sanctionable with a penalty of N1million per breach.”
