As Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) complied with the directive of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to publish the names of forex (FX) offenders in the country, the United Bank for Africa (UBA) topped the chart as the financial institution with the highest figure.
Going by the information available on the website of 10 commercial banks as of Friday, February 18, 2022, BizWatch Nigeria observed that with 1,226 names, UBA recorded the highest number of FX offenders.
Listing 990 FX offenders, Zenith Bank sits second on the table. Polaris Bank and Sterling Bank listed 40 and 53, respectively.
Access Bank on its website has 29, Fidelity Bank is also reporting 83, First City Monument Bank (FCMB) had eight, Stanbic IBTC Bank 15, Standard Charted Bank had four, United Bank for Africa had three, and Wema bank has so far published just one name.
What you should know
It would be recalled that in July 2021, CBN directed financial institutions to publish names and Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) of customers who violated its Personal and Business Travel Allowance rules.
PTA/BTA is a foreign currency product that ensures customers who are traveling out of the country on personal or business trips have access to forex at approved CBN rates.
The rates from the banks could be as low as N412/1$ compared to N560/$ at the black market.
To stop Nigerians from cheating the system, CBN instructed that customers must return the purchased PTA/BTA within two weeks if travel plans were canceled or risk getting their names accounts blacklisted, and details published.
