•CBN
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) yesterday assured Nigerians that banks in the country are resilient and none of them has failed integrity test.
This was contained in a statement signed by the Acting Director, Corporate Communications of the bank, Mrs. Sidi Ali, Hakama.
The statement reads, “The attention of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been drawn to reports in some media outlets suggesting that some licensed commercial banks in the country had failed the CBN’s Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) for international authorisation.
“We wish to clarify that the Nigerian banking industry remains resilient as key financial soundness indicators were within the regulatory thresholds as captured in the CBN’s most recent Economic Report of 2023”.
Hakama added that the CBN is engaging with various critical stakeholders to sustain the level of confidence in the Nigerian financial sector.
“We, therefore, appeal to Nigerians to disregard the media reports listing banks as failing the Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) stress test for international authorisation as the report did not emanate from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)”, she added.
Also yesterday, the bank said it has suspended the processing fees on large cash deposits in a statement by the Acting Director of Supervision, Dr. Adetona Adedeji.
The new development under the ‘Guide to Charges by Banks, Other Financial Institutions, and Non-Bank Financial Institutions’ issued on December 20, 2019, with reference number (FPR/DIR/ GEN/CIR/07/042), affects deposits above N500,000 for individual accounts and N3,000,000 for corporate accounts.
The suspension shall remain in effect until April 30, 2024, CBN said.
The CBN had in 2019 declared that it would begin to levy bank customers making cash deposits and withdrawals as part of its efforts to reduce cash in use.
The CBN also made known that for corporate accounts, the Deposits Money Banks would charge five percent processing fees for withdrawals and three percent processing fees for lodgments of amounts above N3,000,000.
“Consequently, all financial institutions regulated by the CBN should accept all cash deposits from the public without any charges going forward”.
