The Central Bank of Nigeria has warned commercial banks to desist from transition errors and avoid charging unwarranted fees initiated by them.
Director, Banking & Payment Systems Department of the CBN, Mr. ‘Dipo Fatokun, while speaking in Lagos, said bank-induced transactions should not be charged on customers’ accounts, and that banks should resolve disputes arising from use of Unstructured Supplementary Service Data channel within three
days.
He said such resolution would help build more confidence in the payment system and bring more people into the financial services’ net.
According to him, some provisions of the regulatory framework for USSD, such as the authentication measures for transactions, International Mobile Subscriber Identity, Date of SIM Swap, Date of Device change, International Mobile Equipment Identity, among others, were to make the channel more effective.
Represented by the Assistant Director, Banking and Payments System Department, Taiwo Oladimeji, he said maximum USSD transaction limit remained N100, 000 per customer per day, adding that any amount above that required the customer to execute indemnity at the bank.
Speaking on half-year review of developments in the e-payment industry and Customer Protection, Fatokun said, “USSD transactions above N20, 000 require two-factor
authentication.
No USSD financial service should be activated for customer unless the deactivation mechanism is put in place with effect from October, 2018. In addition, the CBN is currently working to properly structure and formalise the sandbox arrangement in Nigeria, by collaborating with some infrastructure providers like the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System to interact with FinTechs.”
Fatokun said the financial system was undergoing transformation through technology, adding that it was not only peculiar to the financial services sector, but also applied to all sectors of human endeavour.
“We are seeing new operators with technology savvy, more efficient models, and collaborations among new entrants, as well as established participants in payment systems, in ways that exhibit regulatory
challenges.
To meet up with the challenges, some countries have adopted regulatory sandbox approach which is not totally novel to the CBN. We are, however, working to properly structure and formalise the sandbox arrangement in Nigeria by collaborating with some infrastructure providers to interact with FinTechs,” he
said.
He added that a well-functioning National Payments System was crucial to the financial sector development, as it increases confidence in the financial sector by ensuring a credible, reliable and efficient payment system. He also said in recent years, the payment landscape has experienced a lot of innovation, bursting with enterprise and reaching the unbanked and
undeserved.
Speaking further, he said consumer protection involved a whole range of laws, policies, structures, actions and behaviours designed to protect consumers from the abuse and exploitation of service
providers.
“Consumer protection is critical in improving access and usage of financial products and services, as it ensures that increased access and usage of financial services translate to benefits for the economy and individuals, and also helps protect consumers from probable market abuse,” he explained.
