The Central Bank of Nigeria has sanctioned three Nigerian commercial banks namely; Access, UBA and Stanbic IBTC for failing to comply with regulations prohibiting consumers from transacting in cryptocurrencies.
According to Bloomberg, the sanctions included a fine of N800million to be paid by the banks who engaged in the transactions. These sanctions are part of the CBN’s efforts to tighten the policies on cryptocurrencies and ensure that commercial restrictions on cryptocurrency trading are in place. However, the report by Bloomberg also revealed that the CBN has the ability to detect cryptocurrency transactions performed by the commercial banks in underground.
The Banks and their respective fine
According to Bloomberg report, Access Bank Plc, a Tier-1 Bank and the country’s largest lender by assets, was fined a whooping sum of N500 million for failing to shut down customers crypto accounts.
United Bank for Africa, a Pan African bank with over 20 million customers, was fined N100 million for a customer’s digital-currency transaction.
And, Stanbic IBTC Bank, a subsidiary of Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc was fined N200 million for two alleged crypto transaction by its customers.
Nonetheless, the Chief Executive Officer of Stanbic IBTC Bank, Wole Adeniyi has disclosed at an investor conference call in Lagos that, Stanbic IBTC having followed all the Central Bank orders regarding cryptocurrency transactions, the transaction for which it is sanctioned for may have passed through the system without being detected.
He therefore urged the CBN to grant the Nigerian lenders access to the “advanced capacity” technology it used to detect the transaction.
What the CEO of Stanbic IBTC Bank is saying
“It does not seem that they are going to entertain a refund, but they are now sharing intelligence with us to be able to kind of deter clients.”
