The apex bank said the new penalty will take effect from January 1, 2020.
The Central Bank of Nigeria has imposed a N2m fine on every transaction where commercial banks makes illegal surcharge from customers' accounts.
The apex bank said the new penalty will take effect from January 1, 2020.
CBN said, “To guard against excess, unapproved or arbitrary charges by banks and other financial institutions, the Guide to Bank Charges stipulates a penalty of N2,000,000 per infraction or as may be determined by the CBN from time to time for financial institutions that breach any provision of the guide.”
It stated that another N2m daily penalty will be charged on erring banks if they fail to comply with the earlier sanction.
It added, “The guide also emphasises that failure by any bank to comply with CBN’s directive in respect of any infraction shall attract a further penalty of N2,000,000 daily until the directive is complied with or as may be determined by the CBN from time to time.
“In order to ensure that banks actually attend to every customer’s complaints, CBN has directed banks to log every complaint received from their customers into the Consumer Complaints Management System in addition to generating a unique reference code for each complaint lodged, which must be given to the customer.
“CBN has also warned that failure to log and provide the code to the customer will amount to a breach and is sanctionable with a penalty of N1,000,000 per breach.”