By John Ikani
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has announced a downward review of charges for electronic banking transactions in its revised guidelines to charges by banks, other financial institutions and non-bank financial institutions.
The guideline was signed by Chibuzor Efobi, for the Director, Financial Policy and Regulation Department of CBN.
The apex bank which noted that the new guide included review of other bank charges to align with market developments, added that the entire review was in response to “further evolution in the financial industry in the last few years.”
Part of the CBN guidelines also comprised sections designed to directly address instances of excess unapproved, (arbitrary) charges.
The revised guidelines also comprised inclusion of new sections on accountability/responsibility and a sanction regime to directly address instances of excess unapproved, (arbitrary) charges.
The CBN added that the revised guidelines took effect from January 1.
The guide was first released in 2004 and revised in 2013 and 2017 due to market developments such as new innovations in products and channels, as well as new industry participants.
Here are some of the major electronic charges
• The annual cost for foreign currency (FCY) denominated cards has been cut from $20 to $10.
• ATM fees are decreased from N65 to N35 following the third withdrawal within a month.
• The fee for hardware tokens will be based on cost recovery, with a maximum charge of N2,500, as opposed to the previous maximum charge of N3,500.
• The fee for SMS obligatory alerts will be based on a cost recovery from the previous maximum price of N4.
• Bill payments made through e-channels will incur a maximum fee of N500 based on 0.75 percent of the transaction amount up to a maximum of N1,200.
• A pricing scale for electronic transfers to replace the present N50 flat cost.
• As a result, transactions below N5,000 would incur a maximum fee of N10; transfers between N5001 and N50,000 will incur a charge of N25; and transfers above N50,000 will incur a charge of N50.
