The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has slammed an N800 million fine on Access Bank, and the United Bank of Africa (UBA), for aiding cryptocurrency-related transactions.
Another Deposit Money Bank (DMB) that the penalty was meted on was Stanbic IBTC.
Bloomberg reports that while Access Bank was fined N500 million for failure to close customers’ cryptocurrency accounts, UBA incurred a N100 million penalty for digital-currency transactions by a customer.
Quoting the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Stanbic IBTC, Wole Adeniyi, the financial institution was fined N200 million for two accounts alleged to have been used for crypto transactions.
According to Adeniyi, Stanbic IBTC followed the CBN directive to restrict cryptocurrency transactions, adding that the transactions it was sanctioned for might have passed through its system undetected.
“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,” the Stanbic IBTC CEO said, as he noted that CBN was able to leverage advanced capability to detect the relevant transactions.
The CBN directive and cryptocurrency market
It would be recalled that in a circular dated February 2021, the apex bank directed financial institutions that operates within the shores of Nigeria to block trading in cryptocurrencies due to the threat they pose to the country’s financial system.
As part of its promised sanctions, CBN ordered banks to shut down the accounts of two individuals and a company for allegedly trading in cryptocurrencies.
However, in spite of this regulation and its promised sanctions on violators, Nigeria accounts for the largest volume of cryptocurrency transactions outside the United States, according to Paxful, a Bitcoin marketplace.
Similarly, the country also has the largest proportion of retail users conducting cryptocurrency transactions under $10,000, Chainalysis says.
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