The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, yesterday, directed banks
operating in the country to accept deposit of cheques into savings account and
to begin to embed Bank Verification Number, BVN in payment cards.
The CBN, in a circular signed by Director, Banking &
Payments System Department, Dipo Fatokun, dated July 28, 2016, sent to all
banks and financial institutions and released, yesterday, stated: “The CBN in
furtherance of its efforts at strengthening the Nigerian payments system hereby
issues the following directives:
“The removal of fixed
interest rate on credit cards; Discontinuation of actual address verification
in account opening for customers with customers with the BVN; Banks should
begin to embed BVN biometric data in payment cards issued henceforth, to
facilitate offline BVN verification and biometric based customer authentication
on such payment devices as Automated Teller Machines, ATMs, Point of Sales
Terminals, POS, Kiosks, etc.”
Other directives by the CBN to banks include: “Approval of
BVN Watch-listing modalities and release by CBN of necessary Credit Risk
Management System (CRMS) data, to facilitate its use for enriching the BVN
watch-list; savings account customers with BVN should be allowed to deposit
cheques worth not more than N2,000,000.00 (Two million naira) into their
accounts, per customer, per day.
It will be recalled that in furtherance of efforts in the development of a safe, reliable and efficient payments system in Nigeria, the CBN in conjunction with the Bankers’ Committee, undertook some major initiatives. One of such was the launching of the BVN Project in February 2014, which was sponsored by the bankers committee.
It will be recalled that in furtherance of efforts in the development of a safe, reliable and efficient payments system in Nigeria, the CBN in conjunction with the Bankers’ Committee, undertook some major initiatives. One of such was the launching of the BVN Project in February 2014, which was sponsored by the bankers committee.
The CBN had observed the progress so far in the
implementation of BVN Project. In order to increase the tempo in the enrolment
by the Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) customers on the the BVN, and to start
reaping the benefits of the project, it is imperative to stipulate milestone
for the implementation of the Project.
The CBN had in an earlier circular stated: “All stakeholders
are hereby advised to note and implement the following: That by March 2015,
transactions valued at N100,000,000.00 (One hundred million Naira) and above,
should be allowed for customers with the BVN; (These include, but not limited
to, money transfers, loans, contingencies, etc).
It said that by June 2015, all banks’ customers should have
BVN. Any bank customer without the BVN would be deemed to have inadequate Know
Your Customer, KYC. DMBs should intensify efforts to sensitize their customers
on the aforementioned development and enrol them for the BVN accordingly.
It
further said that DMBs are required to submit to NIBSS, as part of their weekly
returns on Customers Account Details, the account status of customers that have
submitted their BVN and those that have not. NIBSS in turn, will render
consolidated returns to the CBN, on weekly basis, starting from 1st October
2015.”
It should be noted also that the CBN had told banks
operating in the country that bank accounts without the BankVerification Number
(BVN) would be operated as “No Customer Initiated Debit”. The apex bank said
this in a circular titled: “Classification on Accounts with BVN Related Issues”
sent to all commercial banks and posted on its website. The circular had said
that such accounts would remain dormant until the account holder obtains and
attaches the BVN to the account.
The circular read: “It has, however, come to our notice,
that some customers could not link their BVN to their accounts.This is due to
discrepancies between the record on the BVN database and the records on the
core banking applications of the DMBs. “Such customers can approach their
bankers for correction, but some of the banks could not effect the
corrections.”
The apex bank, in the circular, said that in view of this
development, it had become imperative for the CBN to issue the clarifications.
It said that such clarifications included corrections of Date of Birth on the
BVN record. This should be allowed once, with supporting documents, evidencing
the correct date of birth.
The CBN had said that this should be reported to the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) as a suspicious transaction by the bank customer.
Tags
Business