Cryptocurrency transactions: CBN slams N800m on Access, UBA and Stanbic IBTC

Wednesday, April 6, 2022 10:18 pm

CBN

The Central Bank of Nigeria has wielded the big stick on three Nigerian commercial banks. It slammed a total of N800 million fine on Access Bank, UBA and Stanbic IBTC. Their offence: Failure to comply with regulations “prohibiting consumers from transacting in cryptocurrencies.”

According to Bloomberg, the fines are part of the Nigerian apex bank’s efforts to discourage cryptocurrency, ensuring that commercial restrictions on cryptocurrency trading are in place. “It was also revealed that the CBN has the ability to detect cryptocurrency transactions that commercial banks may have overlooked.”

Below are the fines per bank

*According to the report, Access Bank Plc, the country’s largest lender by assets, was fined N500 million for failing to shut down customers’ crypto accounts.

*United Bank for Africa Plc was fined N100 million naira for a customer’s digital-currency transactions.

*CBN penalized Stanbic IBTC Bank, the local unit of Standard Bank Group Ltd., N200 million for two accounts allegedly used for crypto transactions.

Chief Executive Officer of Stanbic IBTC, Wole Adeniyi was quoted by nairametrix during an investor conference call in Lagos that while Stanbic IBTC followed the central bank’s orders, the transactions for which it was sanctioned may have passed through its system undetected.

He said the CBN was able to detect the relevant transactions using “advanced capacity” that Nigerian lenders do not have access to, and they have urged the central bank to share the technology.

“It doesn’t seem that they are going to entertain a refund, but they are now sharing intelligence with us to be able to kind of deter clients,” Adeniyi added.