CBN recovers N60bn ‘Illegal charges’ from commercial banks

The Central Bank of Nigeria has facilitated the refunds of a total of N60 billion by commercial banks to their customers on March 31, 2018 through the intervention of the consumer protection department. CBN director of Payment Systems Department, Dipo Fatokun, disclosed this at the ‘Meet The Executive’ forum organised by the Finance Correspondents Association of Nigeria (FICAN) in Lagos at the weekend. Fatokun, who noted that the recovery also includes $18 million, 26,000 euros and 6000 British pounds, said such resolution will help build more confidence in the payment system and bring more people into the financial services net. In furtherance of its statutory responsibility to promote confidence in the financial system, the CBN had over the years implemented a measure of consumer protection mainly in the form of customer complaint management. The apex bank has also directed all commercial banks to resolve disputes arising from use of Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) within three days. Fatokun, who was represented by the Assistant Director, Banking and Payments System Department, Taiwo Oladimeji, said maximum USSD transaction limit remained N100,000 per customer per day, adding that any amount above that required the customer to execute indemnity at the bank.