CBN Headquarters

Obinna Chima
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has expressed disappointment over the failure of commercial banks to provide accurate figures on the occurrence of fraud in their institution.

Speaking at the August edition of the Nigerian Electronic Fund Forum (NEFF) in Lagos yesterday, Deputy Director, Domestic Payment Division, CBN, Mr. Emmanuel Obaigbona, warned that henceforth, sanction would imposed on banks that fail to disclose appropriate fraud reports.

Obaigbona, who is also chairman of the NEFF added: “I am not particularly happy that many banks are not giving us accurate figures, especially with regards to fraud. I don’t know what is there to be scared of. Some think it is a form of de-marketing, but it is not!

“If something happens to a bank and it refuses to share it, we keep suffering and other attacks would keep coming. I know a bank that suffered from fraud not too long ago, yet the report they gave us is as low as N3000, but we know the actual statistics. That is not fair!”

Continuing, he said: “We are going to impose sanctions. We are going to form a committee that would look at the issue of sanction. If you give us wrong statistics and we find out, we are going to impose sanctions because you are not helping the industry by covering up.

“It is better if you have fraud incidence, we all look at it together and look for a way out of it, than for you to suffer in silence. If we all come together like we are doing presently, we will be able to push the industry forward. We need to be proactive in all that we are doing.”

According to Obaigbona, the NEFF was working closely with the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) to change the current fraud reporting format.

“By the time we finish with what we are doing, we would be able to come out with a better reporting format. And we will apply the big stick on any bank that fails to comply,” he added.

He also said the banking sector watchdog had approved the registration of the NEFF as a non –governmental organisation (NGO)

In his presentation, Executive Director, NIBSS, Mr. ’Niyi Ajao, advised banks to put in place, adequate fraud control systems. According to Ajao, the industry has continued to record a decline in the amount of electronic payment fraud.