The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has given a minimum fine of N2 million as a penalty on banks that disobey its new guidelines on the management of dormant accounts, unclaimed balances and other financial assets in banking institutions in the country.
According to the CBN, a dormant account is a bank account that has remained inactive for at least one year and an account is classified inactive if there has been no customer or depositor-initiated transaction for six months after the last customer or depositor-initiated transaction.
In the guidelines broadcasted in a circular signed by the Director, Financial Policy and Regulation Department, CBN, Mr. Chibuzo Efobi, the apex bank had added that a further daily penalty of N200,000 will be applied until full compliance with the directive.
In its electronic fact sheet for 2021, the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System, NIBSS revealed that the number of bank accounts stood at 191.4 million as of December 2021, and the number of active bank accounts was 133.5 million owned by 122.3 million active bank customers.
This data indicates that 57.9 million inactive accounts were recorded during the period.
