Okechukwu Unegbu, a former president of the Chattered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), has urged bank customers to approach the courts if they observe irregular deductions from their accounts.

Mr Unegbu, a former managing director of the defunct Citizens International Bank, gave the advice in an interview on Sunday in Abuja.

He spoke against the backdrop of complaints by bank customers on unexplained, multiple deductions from their accounts.

According to him, the best thing is for customers to initiate court cases against such banks, even while accepting that the justice system is slow.

“That bothers them a lot. In one instance, I won a case against First Bank, and they paid damages. The only problem is that the judiciary is slow,” he said.

Mr Unegbu said the best way to sort such issues out would have been through the bank customers association, which was not active.

He said that the banks can charge N5 or N10 per transaction, and people see it as small and ignore it, “but when you consider that they have millions of customers that they take such charges from, you will know that it is a lot of money for them.”

Mr Unegbu said there were Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) guidelines on bank charges, urging customers to take cognisance of the document and seek redress when they got charges outside the guidelines.

“That document explicitly states the legal charges that banks are entitled to from their customers, but most Nigerian banks charge much more than what is recommended, which is against all principles of banking.

”Such things do not happen abroad. And the problem is that most customers do not complain. If customers can develop the habit of complaining, the banks will start learning,” he said.

He said the CBN had a complaint desk for such issues, adding that the desk appears ineffective.

Meanwhile, findings revealed that the apex bank approved charges across all banks in Nigeria.

According to the CBN guidelines, transactions below N5,000 will incur a maximum fee of N10; transfers between N5,000 and N50,000 will attract a charge of N25; and transfers beyond N50,000 will receive a charge of N50.

The guidelines state that account card maintenance costs have been eliminated because the accounts already have maintenance fees.

It said there are no charges for naira debit cards linked to current accounts, and the fee for reissuing lost or damaged cards (at the customer’s request) is N1,000 (one-off charge), while the renewal fee, when existing cards expire, was N1,000 (one-off charge).

“Monthly statements of account for current and savings accounts are required and are free of charge. Special statement of account requests is a maximum of N20 per page.

“SMS alert is mandatory. If a customer chooses not to receive SMS alerts, the consumer must provide the bank with an indemnity (for any damages that may occur as a result). There is no cost for receiving an email notification,” it said.

The CBN announced that any financial institution that violated any of the terms in the guidelines would be fined N2 million per violation, or as the CBN may determine from time to time.

(NAN)