The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) fined Access bank Plc and Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc a total sum of N423.15 million in half year ended June 30, 2021.
According to the banks result released at the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX), the financial institutions in the first half year of this year contravene about 11 market infractions with Access bank sanctioned a sum of N190 million and Stanbic IBTC Holdings N233million.
THISDAY gathered that Stanbic IBTC Holdings in prior half year was sanctioned N45million.
Analysis of the banks audited half year results showed that Stanbic IBTC Holdings was heavily sanctioned about N230 million for an alleged contravention of extant foreign exchange regulations from January 2013 to July 2020, while CBN imposed N100million on Access bank for faulting its guidelines on diaspora remittances.
Other sanctioned imposed on Access Bank by CBN and SEC include Sum of N2.9million in respect of delayed response to the queries of the SEC on cases with two customers and N2million in respect of CBN’s directive on migration of some accounts to a specified product.
Access Bank was sanctioned N80million being penalty for contravening the CBN’s foreign exchange regulations from Jan 1, 2013 to July 31, 2020 and paid the SEC N0.5 million in respect of contravention of rule for receiving bank.
The N0.5 million fine was in respect of a shareholder’s complaint on dividend as the CBN imposed N2million in respect of Consumer Protection report for the period of Jul 2020- Dec 2020.
In addition, Access Bank was fined a sum of N2.25million in respect of failure to comply with the CBN’s AML/CFT regulations and KYC policies in respect of a customer’s account.
For Stanbic IBTC Holdings, it was fined N1million N1 million for administrative infractions during Retirement Savings Account Transfer 4th Quarter of 2020 as a result of failed validation attempts at the point of upload.
The bank in its audited half year ended June 30, 2021 results added that: “Penalty imposed by CBN following an alleged unfair termination of employment of former employee: The CBN imposed a penalty of N2 million on the Bank following an alleged unfair termination of employment of a former employee, whose employment was terminated for being unable to meet the performance criteria required to confirm his employment in line with policy.”
