Excess charges: CBN recovers N5bn from banks

Ahead of impending review of bank charges in the country, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), on Thursday, said it has so far recovered an estimated N5 billion for various customers from complaints lodged against banks in the country since the establishment of the Consumer Protection Department at the apex bank.  The amount represents reimbursements and penalties against banks in favour of the affected customers through the instrumentality of CBN’s Consumer Protection Department. CBN’s Deputy Governor in charge of Operations, Mr Tunde Lemo, who gave hints on the recoveries in a welcome address at a workshop on Payment Card Industry Data, Security and Cashless Nigeria, said the development signposts the apex bank’s commitment towards achieving faster dispute resolution within the banks.  He explained that it was against that backdrop that the bank had equally directed deposit money banks to establish consumer response units in ther respective institutions to provide first layer dispute resolution platform for aggrieved customers.  Lemo said the CBN would continue monitoring compliance to that directive until it was convinced that customer service delivery in the nation’s banking industry was significantly improved.  It would be recalled that the CBN early this year created a Consumer Protection Department to address bank- customer disputes arising from excess charges, unauthorized debits, service down time and other disagreements that often pitched banks against their customers.  However, with the setting up of the CPD at the CBN, depositors who feel injured by their respective financial institutions can now seek redress through the department.  Commenting on the cash-less Lagos project, the CBN deputy governor stated the initiative would facilitate and entrench electronic payments, as the major channel for payment and settlement, by all economic agents, as opposed to the current dominance of cash based transactions. He pointed out that the policy was introduced for various reasons, including the need to drive development and modernization of the nation’s payments system in line with Nigeria’s vision goal of being amongst the top 20 economies by the year 2020. According to him, an efficient and modern payments system is positively correlated with economic development, being a key enabler for economic growth, capable of adding up to 2 per cent to the GDP annually. He also assured that the successful implementation of the experiment would reduce the cost of banking services (including cost of credit) and drive financial inclusion, by providing more efficient transaction options and greater reach, while improving the effectiveness of monetary policy in managing inflation and driving economic growth. While admitting that not all the estimated 90,000 Point of Sales terminals are functional, Lemo said the apex bank would continue to work with all stakeholders including the telecommunications service providers to ensure that current challenges facing the scheme are overcome