CBN receives 747 complaints against banks in 6 months

It has been disclosed that over 747 complaints against some banks in the country involving the sum of N8.09bn were received by the Central Bank of Nigeria between January-June this year.

This was contained in the apex bank financial report recently released. In the report, CBN stated that this statistics represented a drop 4.48 per cent from the previous complaints received by the CBN in the first half of 2014.

Central Bank of Nigeria also added that during the period, a total of 481 cases which included some outstanding ones from previous period were resolved.

It will be recalled that since the appointment of Godwin Emefiele as the Governor of the CBN, many reforms have been implemented to protect the banking industry as well as customers who had raised a lot of issues on the services provided by the banks.

Parts of these reforms led to the establishment of a group Known as ‘How Banks Rob Their Customers’, which calls on members of the public to report cases of fraudulent practices by the banks. Apart from high interest charges by the banks, the group accuses the banks of stealing customers’ savings through various hidden charges,

Other measures put in place by the CBN to tackle frauds in the banks included the establishment of the Nigeria Electronic Fraud Forum (NeFF) as part of its effort to combat fraudulent activities in the banking industry, particularly those associated with increased use of electronic payment systems.

In a memo to all DMBs, switches and payment service providers, the CBN gave all banks and e-payment platforms July 1 deadline to set up and staff a functioning Fraud Desk.

The desk would provide, among other services, support to customers on electronic fraud with a minimum of 10 dedicated phone lines, manned and available at all times, to handle calls directed from contact centre for fraud alerts and complaints.