The Central Bank of Nigeria and Financial Reporting Council of
Nigeria fined four commercial banks between January and June for various
infractions.
According
to The
Punch newspaper, the apex bank imposed a number of sanctions on the
banks for failure to comply with its Know-Your-Customers guidelines and in the
anti-money laundering requirement.
The
banks disclosed the sanctions in their audited financial statements for the six
months ended June.
For
its infractions, GTBank Plc was asked to pay N10m while the United Bank for
Africa Plc and Access Bank Plc were asked to pay N8m each. Fidelity Bank Plc
was sanctioned N4m by the regulating body.
GTBank
disclosed in its audited financial statement for six months ended June 30 that
it was sanctioned N2m for Anti-Money laundering/ Combating the Financing of
Terrorism regulation on three-tiered KYC and N8m for 2018 risk- based
examination findings.
The
bank explained that it was committed to fight all forms of financial crime
including money laundering, terrorist financing, bribery and corruption.
It
said, “To this end, the bank has continually implemented a framework for
AML/CFT and the prevention of the financing and proliferation of weapons of
mass destruction.”
Access
Bank was sanctioned N4m over failure to comply with anti-money laundering
requirement and additional N4m in respect of failure to comply with the apex
bank’s manual of operations for fund transfer.
UBA,
on the other hand, was sanctioned N2m for late resolution of customer
complaints and N6m for deficiency in account documentation/late records
retrieval.
A
former President/Chairman of Council, Chartered Institute of Bankers of
Nigeria, Prof Segun Ajibola, explained to The Punch newspaper that
sanctions in the banking sector came in different categories.
He
said, “They are different categories of sanctions in the banking industry.
There are sanctions that are regulatory in nature when certain specifications
are given and banks are unable to meet them.
“There
are penalties that are operational in nature like violating the CBN guidelines.
There are also contraventions when banks are unable to meet up lending a
certain fraction of loans portfolio to agriculture sector. It is expected by
the end of the day the CBN imposes sanctions.“There are some sanctions that can
be ethical in nature. It might involve banks involved in round-tripping foreign
exchange – that is unethical practice. A bank that decided to accommodate
AML/CFT without conducting due diligent has ethical issues.
“Some
infractions are environmental in nature.”
He
added that customers were given more sympathy than banks as it was more
convenient to sanction banks than the customer.
Credit: Punch
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