CBN, Banks CEOs to freeze account of bank customers who apply for FX fraudulently

Commercial banks operating in the country with the backing of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) have agreed to start blacklisting Nigerians who approached banks for foreign exchange in a fraudulent way.

The lenders, under the umbrella of Bankers Committee, also disclosed that they are attaining progress in the rehabilitation of the National Theatre and which would be completed by December 2022 and that local contractors would be given preference to build.

The Committee made the disclosures at a virtual press briefing after the conclusion of its meeting on Thursday.

The banks, therefore, informed the general public that it has collaborated with the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) to create a portal where information on forex sales can be shared in real-time to help checkmate arbitrage and also aide digitisation process of buying invincibles.

The Group Chief Executive Officer Guarantee Trust Holding, Mr Segun Agbaje said the banks are capable and eager to support the apex bank policy on Forex but as a means of protecting themselves they would sanction fraudulent customers who plan to be duplicitous.

According to him, the new Forex policy with regards to invincible, PTA and BTA, school fees, health is working very well. The banks have taken it upon us along with the regulators to make sure this works.

“This is just the first phase and if you notice, most of the things you are doing today you are going into the branches to do most things but we are also going to try and digitise this whole thing. The way the world is going, an app is being created by NIBBS where you would be able to apply online.”

“Today, there is already a NIBBS portal which the banks share information and what the we do is make sure that the rules around being able to apply for PTA or BTA once a quarter by bringing in your ticket and with this, we would be sharing your information on the portal.”

On consequences to people who plan to defraud the system, he said: “This is very important information because, if we find as we have started to see that people are trying to defraud the system, we would capture this on this portal. And the banks are reporting the individuals to the CBN. The likely punishment is that your account would be PND. And if you understand what that means, PND means you would not be able to do anything in the banking system. So, while we are committed, this is not for people who want to game the system, this is for people who have genuine needs. And so fraudulent transactions or fraudulent individuals will be reported to the CBN and the portal would help us do this.”

He added that the banks are looking to digitising Forex transactions as well citing that the world is more digital and advanced countries mostly frown at holding large quantities of cash.

“We are also hoping that all the transactions would not just be cash. The world today is not completely friendly about arriving in countries with cash so we are hoping people would be able to put this on their cards and card account to use when they travel and for medicals so they are not logging cash around and fill cash declarations forms when they get into countries.”

“We have also examined the nature of things and we believe that most people who would qualify for medical, school fees or BTA and PTA would be people who have banks accounts anyway.”

“We are committed to doing this and it is for people who have legitimate needs. We do not want fraudulent transactions taking place in this space and we would continue to make it quicker, faster cheaper and more efficient by digitising things, putting them in cards and so on.”