CBN Receives 4,142 Petitions on Fraud

Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said it received and treated 4, 142 fraud related petitions against Nigerian banks resulting in the refund of N14.69billion to aggrieved customers.

Umma Dutse, director, Consumer Protection Department (CPD), CBN, stated this at a summit tagged: “Value Based Banking: Banks and their Customers,” organised by the Bank Customers’ Association of Nigeria (BCAN) in Lagos recently.

Dutse, who delivered a paper on “Banker/Customer Relationship: Expectations and Realities,” said the total petitions recorded was from inception of the office when it was still known as the Financial Policy and Regulation Department in March 2010 to May 2014.

Specifically, she stated that the petitions were generally for issues relating to excess charges, unauthorised deductions, dishonoured cheques, cheque conversion, foreign remittances, and ATM frauds.

The CBN director, however, noted that the excess charges constituted over 50 per cent of the petitions the CPD had received and treated as at May, 2014.

According to him, the reasons that accounted for the development included greed, and poor service delivery by banks as well as failure to adhere to the provisions of extant guidelines and agreements.

“We had received many petitions where banks charged CoT in excess of the provisions of the RGBC, or where banks introduced fees that were not initially in the agreement between them and their customers. In these, and similar cases, the banks involved invariably breached the customer’s right to fair treatment.”

Dutse further added: “Another reality of the banker/customer relationship is the inadequacy of disclosure by banks to their customers. This is even more pronounced in today’s competitive banking environment where banks churn out different kinds of products and engage in aggressive marketing to enhance their market share.”

Earlier in his remarks, Dr Uju Ogbunka, president, BCAN, stressed the need for banking business to be conducted based on values and best practices.