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The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation, NDIC, Hassan Bello, has said there is the need for bank customers to be enlightened on bank charges.
Speaking at a three day Workshop with the theme: “Enduring Extreme Disruption–Resilience & Reinvention for Banking System Stability and Deposit Insurance,” organized for Business Editors and members of the Finance Correspondents Association of Nigeria (FICAN) last week, Hassan noted that most of the issues surrounding bank charges have been largely addressed assuring that issues surrounding complaints of customers on bank charges will be duly addressed.
He said: “The issues of charges have been largely addressed. That is why we also have this workshop, so that the Finance Correspondents will also help us disseminate the information.
“The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has already issued a guide to bank charges which strictly regulates how charges should be made to customers within the banking system.
“So it is for us now to do more enlightenment to the banking public so that they can know what these charges are. The document is available on the CBN website. You can access it and see what the charges are as per those guidelines. It has already been standardized and taken care of.
“All we need to do is sensitize the banking public so that they can be aware that such document exist so that they are not unduly overcharged by the banks and where customers discover that they have been overcharged, they can petition the CBN or the NDIC and it will be investigated and if the bank is found to overcharge the customer they will be directed to make appropriate refund.
“In several instances it has happened and banks have made refunds to customers where they overcharge them”, he said.
CBN Guide to Bank Charges
The CBN Guide to Bank Charges kicked off in January 2020.
The CBN in the new directive contained in the new Guide to Bank Charges, stated that the withdrawal fee charged for the use of other banks’ ATMs has been reduced from N65 to N35.
Card maintenance fee has been reviewed to N50 every three month (quarterly), from the previous monthly period.
The guide also contained major changes on electronic transactions’ charges in Nigeria such as a graduated fee scale for electronic transfers to replace the current flat fee of N50 will begin, as transfers below N10,000 will attract a maximum charge of N10; and transfers above N50,000 a charge of N50.
The card maintenance fee on the current account was removed as the accounts already attract maintenance fees.
Savings accounts attract a card maintenance fee of N50 per quarter (three months) from N50 per month. Yearly card maintenance fee on foreign currency denominated cards is reduced to $10 from $20.
The charge for hardware token is on a cost-recovery basis subject to a maximum of N2,500 from previous maximum charge of N3,500, while the fee for SMS mandatory alert will be on cost recovery from previous maximum charge of N4.
Bill payment via e-channels attract a maximum charge of N500 from 0.75 per cent of the transaction value subject to a maximum of N1,200.
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