Eniola Olorundare
Five top banks have been fined a sum of N1.4bn for illegal forex trading.
This time would serve as a form of regulatory consciousness.
The banks were United Bank of Africa, Fidelity Bank, Access Bank, Guarantee Trust Bank and First City Monument Bank.
According to Punch This figure was arrived from analysis of the H1 2021 financial statements of the banks obtained from their websites.
Findings show that the penalties were as a result of contraventions and infractions of guidelines instituted by the Federal Government through the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act, relevant CBN circulars and other regulatory requirements.
According to the Intel, gathered by INTEL REGION, the BOFIA Act is a regulatory act that was introduced to guide the financial industry. The Act which was first established in 1991, ammended in 1997, 1998, and 2002 empowers the CBN to implement its provisions.
Mr. president, President Muhammadu Buhari had in November 2020, signed the amended BOFIA Act 2020 which repealed the erstwhile BOFIA 2002.
In the period under review, GTB paid a total sum of N692m as penalties to regulators for two major irregularities bordering on foreign exchange transactions carried out by Betting and Gaming Companies (N690m) and non-refund of interest on debit of non-interest related charges to non-funded accounts (N2m).
Also read: https://phenomenal.com.ng/2021/09/cbn-abokifx-boss-wanted-over-naira-perpetual-collapse/
According to PUNCH, the total sum paid for infractions by Fidelity bank is H1 2021 was N349.3m lower than the aggregate sum of N414.5m paid as penalties in H1 2020.
According to the financial reports, Access Bank was fined N184.5m by the CBN while SEC fined the bank N1m during the review period.
The violations committed by the bank include, “contravening the Central Bank’s Foreign Exchange Regulations from January 1, 2013 to July 31, 2020, contravention of rule for receiving bank, a shareholder’s complaint on dividend, CBN’s Consumer Protection report for the period of Jul 2020- Dec 2020, failure to comply with the CBN’s money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism regulations and Know Your Customer policies in respect of a customer’s account and failure to comply with Guidelines on Diaspora remittances.”
