By John Ikani
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says it has placed over 6,000 bank verification numbers (BVN) of customers under watchlist for transactions linked to fraud in the first quarter (Q1) of 2022.
The revelation was made known in the CBN Financial Stability June 2022 report published in December 2022.
According to the report, the number of watchlisted BVNs for fraudulent activities rose by 13.09 percent to 6,047 BVNs, from 5,347 in the last quarter of 2021.
It also noted that 11,871 BVNs were watch-listed as deceased persons in the review period.
The report went on to state that the CBN conducted an assessment of 28 banks and the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System to ascertain compliance with the Regulatory Framework for BVN Operations and Watch-List for the Nigerian Banking Industry in the review period.
It noted that the assessment revealed some infractions and regulatory actions were taken.
The report further disclosed that there were 2.72 million enrolled in the first half of this year, bringing the total number of enrolled BVNs to 54.65 million.
In the report, it was also stated that the number of BVN-linked accounts was 130.57 million out of 148.46 million active accounts.
The report read in part, “Also, 2,722,518 BVNs were enrolled, bringing total BVN enrolment to 54,651,086, reflecting an increase of 5.24 per cent over 51,928,568 enrolments at end-December 2021.
“The number of accounts linked with BVNs was 130,569,656 out of 148,462,947 active customer accounts, while the number of watch-listed BVNs associated with fraud and deceased persons stood at 6,047 and 11,871, respectively.”
