Central Bank of Nigeria has announced a new regime of charges banks can levy on their customers, including on Automated Teller Machine transactions.
In a move that will boost the Christmas spirit of bank customers, the CBN slashed ATM charges after third withdrawal from from N65 to N35.
There were other reductions, according to the new Guide to Charges by Banks, other Financial and Non-Financial institutions, released on Sunday.
The new rates will be effective from 1 January 2020, said Chibuzor Efeobi, Director Financial Policy and Regulation Department.
Under the new rules, Card Maintenance Fee on all cards linked to current accounts has been eliminated.
Banks will also now charge a maximum of N1 per mille for customer induced debit transactions to third parties and transfers or lodgments to the customers’ account in other banks on current accounts only.
The guidelines also pegged the Advance Payment Guarantee to a maximum of one per cent of the APG value in the first year and 0.5 per cent for subsequent years on contingent liabilities.
Other reductions include Advance Payment Guarantee (APG), now pegged at maximum of one per cent of the APG value in the first year and 0.5 per cent for subsequent years on contingent liabilities.
The new guide set debit card charge at a one-off charge of N1,000 for the issuance of cards, irrespective of card type regular or premium.
The same one-off charge of N1,000 applied for the replacement of debit cards at the customer’s instance for lost or damaged cards.
Upon expiry of existing cards, customers are to pay the same one-off charge of N1,000 irrespective of card type and no charge should be required for pre-paid card loading or unloading.
The current NIBSS Instant Payments (NIP) charges applied to use of Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), purchase with cash-back would attract a charge of N100 per N20,000 subject to cumulative N60,000 daily withdrawal.
The maintenance fee for cards linked to savings account, has been reduced to a maximum of N50 per quarter from N50 per month amounting to only N200 per annum instead of N600.
There would be no more charges for reactivation or closure of accounts such as savings, current and domiciliary accounts while status enquiry at the request of the customer like confirmation letter, letter of non-indebtedness and reference letter would now attract a fee of N500 per request.
“On Current Account Maintenance Fee (CAMF), the guide expressly stated that this would be applicable only to current accounts in respect of customer-induced debit transactions to third parties and debit transfers and lodgments to the customer’s account in another bank”, said Isaac Okorafor, the CBN sspokesman.
“It emphasised that CAMF is not applicable to Savings Accounts.
“CBN carried out the review of the guide, which also prescribes charges permissible for Other Financial Institutions and non-bank financial institutions, in order to align with market developments.
“To guard against excess, unapproved or arbitrary charges by banks and other financial institutions, the guide 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.
“The guide also emphasised 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. ”
Okorafor said that the CBN, has directed banks to log every complaint received from their customers into the Consumer Complaints Management System (CCMS) in addition to generating a unique reference code for each complaint lodged, which must be given to the customer.
According to him, 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.
Read the entire new rate regime here: CBN Guideline on charges
