Bank customers across Nigerians yesterday enjoyed the new cut in bank charges for cash withdrawals and electronic transfers, investigations have revealed.
The CBN had on December 20, 2019 slashed bank charges across several platforms. “This new Guide to Charges by Banks and Other Financial Institutions issued in 2017, takes effect from January 1, 2020, and may be reviewed from time to time to reflect changes in the business environment’’, the CBN had said in a directive to banks in the country.
The CBN said a graduated fee scale for electronic transfers would replace the current flat fee of N50. Accordingly, it said, transfers below N10,000 will attract a maximum charge of N10; transfer from N5001 – N50,000 -N25; and transfers above N50,000- N50. It also said card maintenance fee on current account had been removed as the accounts already attract account maintenance fee.
Savings accounts will now attract card maintenance fee of N50 per quarter from N50 per month, it told the banks. The apex bank said the annual card maintenance fee on foreign currency (FCY) denominated cards had been reduced to $10 from $20.
Also, charges on cash withdrawal from other ATMs, other than from the bank that issued the card, were reduced to N35 after third withdrawal within a month from N65. While the charge for hardware token will be on cost recovery basis subject to a maximum of N2,500 from previous maximum charge of N3,500, according to the CBN.
Fee for SMS mandatory alert will be on cost recovery from previous maximum charge of N4, it said. It said bill payment via e-channels will attract a maximum charge of N500 from 0.75% of transaction value subject to maximum of N1,200. It also issued a new section on Accountabilities/Responsibilities and Sanctions regime to address instances of excess, unapproved and/or arbitrary charges.
