CBN places e-payment ban on BVN of 572 customers

The CBN watchlist which was set up due to e-payment fraud-related issues was confirmed by the Deputy Director, Payment System Department, CBN, Adewuyi Adeyemi at the 34th CBN seminar for finance correspondents and business editors held in Calabar, Cross Rivers State.

The Apex bank noted that it initiated the audit of the e-payment channels due to the challenges and widespread transaction failure faced by bank customers and also, to help identify gaps in the industry’s infrastructure that needed fixing.

These challenges gathered momentum during the peak of the naira redesign policy, a development which caused a spike in the number of e-payment transactions across the country.

While noting that a similar incident during the COVID period also caused a spike in the number of electronic transactions, Adeyemi added that the adoption of electronic transactions across many sectors of the economy increased and was actually exceeded this year due to the Naira policy.

According to Adeyemi: “In the last four years, we have had a spike in transactions twice. First time was during COVID, and in January this year, during the currency redesign. Actually, there are advantages and disadvantages to that spike in volume.“

“We were actually not ready for the spike in volume we experienced during the naira redesign. That is one of the reasons why we decided internally that this year we should actually conduct an infrastructure audit based on the principle of Financial Market Infrastructure which is an international standard” He added.

Speaking further, he said that while the CBN plans to initiate an audit on the payment platforms, the affected 572 customers whose BVN have been placed on the watchlist can no longer make use of the e-payment channels for cash transactions, but can only conduct banking transactions by visiting the bank branch where their account is domiciled.