- Time to go beyond refunds
The disclosure by the bankers professional body – the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) that it had caused a refund of not less than N22.98 billion and $16.9 million excess bank charges to petitioners and bank customers since its inception in 2001, although revealing, is unlikely to shock Nigerians. It is merely a window into the depth of the rot that has plagued and continues to plague a sector whose primary purpose is to help drive the economy.
According to CIBN President, Prof Segun Ajibola, the body treated 1,889 petitions/cases with total claims of N320.4billion and $415million, of which 1,766 were resolved. In other words, the refunds represent the proven excess bank charges by various banking institutions. We hope the outstanding complaints will equally be dealt with.
We commend the CIBN for standing up for professionalism and pushing for appropriate restitutions on behalf of those cheated by the industry. Unfortunately, while most Nigerians can claim to be familiar with the role of the institute when it comes to enforcing the Code of Conduct among all cadres of employees in the banking industry, the same cannot be said of its role as a financial ombudsman with a mandate to adjudicate cases or petitions against banks on unethical practices and excess charges. In the likelihood of the number of petitions filed being only a tip of the iceberg, given the abysmal level of financial literacy in the country, we urge the body to do more to promote this aspect of its mandate to avail more Nigerians of avenues for redress, particularly where they have reasons to believe that they have been short-changed.
On the whole, it must be admitted that the issue of excess bank charges has become an industry-wide challenge.Nothing appears exempt: ordinary cash transactions at the Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) are programmed to extract multiple charges that are hard to comprehend; there are charges for transaction notifications, for cheque books, and sundry charges – known only to the charging bank and often without prior notifications.
Not even big corporations are spared of arbitrary charges –the bigger the volume of transactions the more the likelihood that the charges will take time to detect or resolve. In all, bank customers are reduced to a hapless, disempowered lot in an industry where they are supposed to be king. What makes it particularly confounding is that the same bank customers that are often denied access to credit; or when they are availed, at cut-throat interest rates, are the same victims of these numerous invisible charges.
The CIBN has done well in seeking to rein in members who run afoul of the ethics of the profession. It has an additional duty to educate Nigerians on their rights and the avenues available for redress. It should also be time for stakeholders – the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Bankers Committee and the CIBN – to work together to address a problem that is increasingly becoming endemic.
We recognise that the greater aspect of the challenge is regulatory. To the extent that the CBN has the bounden duty to ensure that the guidelines governing the operations of the financial services sector are well publicised, and also to ensure that they are strictly observed, the duty must come with the knowledge of sanctions in the event of infractions. For, while the CIBN is right to move against its members found to have given their profession a bad name, there ought to be in equal measure, penalties from the regulator, for wilful violations of the law.
Above all, it would be a good idea for banks, under the direction of the CBN, to set up help desks to deal with such complaints.
