CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele
The Central Bank of Nigeria has written a letter to the Deposit
Money Banks in the country, asking them to submit list of customers and
bank accounts without bank verification number.
The letter came after a Federal High Court in Abuja ordered the CBN
and 19 banks to freeze accounts without the BVN and got an interim
order seeking the forfeiture of deposits in the accounts without the
BVN, among others.
A good number of the DMBs, if not all, have complied with the
directive from the CBN, according to top bank officials, who spoke to
our correspondent on Sunday under the condition of anonymity because
they were not authorised to speak on the matter.
Shortly after the November 3 deadline given by the court,
commercial banks had started the compilation of bank accounts without
the BVN.
However, the DMBs are also lobbying the Office of the Attorney
General of the Federation to back down on the plan by the Federal
Government to seize monies in the bank accounts of customers without the
BVN.
A Federal High Court in Abuja had on October 17 ordered the
forfeiture of all monies in bank accounts owned by corporate
organisations, government agencies and individuals without the BVN.
The forfeiture order, which was issued by Justice Dimgba Igwe,
while ruling on an ex parte application filed by the Federal Government
through the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation, is not
final yet.
The owners of the accounts had 14 days to claim ownership of same
and show cause why the amounts in them should not be permanently
forfeited to the Federal Government.
The court also ordered the banks to advertise the accounts without
the BVN in a widely circulated national newspaper as notice to those who
might have any interest in them.
Justice Dimgba adjourned until November 16 for the hearing of the
substantive application seeking the forfeiture of the sums in the
accounts without the BVN.
However, the 19 DMBs named in suit have engaged the services of a
top law firm to address the matter, according to top banking industry
sources. Already, the law firm has approached the court for an extension
of time to appeal the court order.
Top bank executives privy to the development had told our
correspondent last week that all the affected lenders were ready to
appeal the court order and had instructed the law firm to file for an
extension of time to do so.
“All the banks are ready to appeal the court order. We have
engaged the services of a law firm to begin that process. The legal firm
is expected to have filed the papers for an extension of time at the
court. This will help us prepare for the proposed appeal,” a top executive of a tier-1 bank told a Punch correspondent under the condition of anonymity last Monday.
The court gave the order on October 17 following an application that was filed on September 28.
Justice Dimgba also ordered the banks to file an affidavit of
disclosure before the court, showing the names of the affected accounts,
the account numbers, outstanding balances, domiciliary accounts and the
bank branches where the accounts were domiciled.
Banks did not official provide details of their plan on the BVN
matter. Some, however, told our correspondent they had complied with all
regulatory requirements on the BVN matter.
Spokesperson for First Bank of Nigeria Limited, Mr. Babatunde Lasaki, said, “The bank will do what needs to be done on the BVN matter and we will comply with all regulatory requirements on the matter.”
The Head, Corporate Communications, Skye Bank Plc, Mr. Rasheed Bolawinwa, said, “As a regulatory-compliant bank, Skye Bank has complied with the expectations of the regulator concerning the issue of the BVN.”
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