The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN and Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, FRCN have sanctioned four commercial banks between January and June for various infractions.
The apex bank reportedly imposed a number of sanctions on the banks for failure to comply with its Know-Your-Customers guidelines and in the anti-money laundering requirement.
The banks disclosed the sanctions in their audited financial statements for the six months ended June.
For its infractions, GTBank Plc was asked to pay N10m while the United Bank for Africa Plc and Access Bank Plc were asked to pay N8m each. Fidelity Bank Plc was sanctioned N4m by the regulating body.
GTBank disclosed in its audited financial statement for six months ended June 30 that it was sanctioned N2m for Anti-Money laundering/ Combating the Financing of Terrorism regulation on three-tiered KYC and N8m for 2018 risk- based examination findings.
The bank explained that it was committed to fight all forms of financial crime including money laundering, terrorist financing, bribery and corruption.
It said, “To this end, the bank has continually implemented a framework for AML/CFT and the prevention of the financing and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.”
Access Bank was sanctioned N4m over failure to comply with anti-money laundering requirement and additional N4m in respect of failure to comply with the apex bank’s manual of operations for fund transfer.
UBA, on the other hand, was sanctioned N2m for late resolution of customer complaints and N6m for deficiency in account documentation/late records retrieval.