CBN fines Access, U.B.A, Stanbic IBTC over N800 million

The Central Bank of Nigeria has fined three Nigerian commercial banks a sum of N800 million for failing to adjust to regulations forbidding consumers from transacting in cryptocurrencies.

According to Bloomberg, the penalties are an aspect of the CBN’s endeavours to tighten down on cryptocurrency, ensuring that commercial constraints on cryptocurrency trading are in place. It was also disclosed that the CBN can discover cryptocurrency transactions that commercial banks may have overlooked

Stanbic IBTC Bank, Access Bank Plc, and United Bank for Africa are among the banks affected.

Banks and amount in fine

●         Access Bank Plc, the country’s largest lender by assets, according to a report was fined N500 million for failing to shut down customers’ crypto accounts.

●         United Bank for Africa Plc was fined N100 million naira for a customer’s digital-currency transactions.

●         Stanbic IBTC Bank was also penalized by CBN. The local unit of Standard Bank Group Ltd was fined, the sum of N200 million for two accounts allegedly used for crypto transactions.

●         Chief Executive Officer of Stanbic IBTC, Wole Adeniyi disclosed at an investor conference call in Lagos that while Stanbic IBTC followed the central bank’s orders, the transactions for which it was sanctioned may have passed through its system undetected.

●         He said the CBN was able to discover the relevant transactions using “advanced capacity” that Nigerian lenders do not have access to, and they have urged the central bank to share the technology.

●         “It doesn’t look like they are going to entertain a refund, but they are now disseminating intelligence with us to be able to deter clients,” said Adeniyi.

Information has It that other banks are affected as well and the Central Bank is currently on course to uncover them.