The Central Bank of
Nigeria has rolled out penalties to be meted out to recalcitrant
operators who have ignored its regulations in a bid to protect
Automated Teller Machines (ATM) users.
In a circular last
Monday, the CBN expressed displeasure at the impunity with which some
operators have disregarded previous circulars and guidelines.
“The bank has
observed, with great concern, the lack of cooperation and the
deliberate attempt by some players in the e-payment market to frustrate
the policy on offsite ATMs of deposit money banks,” it stated on the
circular on its website.
The circular is
titled, ‘Penalty for Non Compliance with CBN Circulars and Guidelines
on ATM Operations in Nigeria’, and signed by the director, banking and
payment systems department of the CBN. With the new guidelines, the CBN
is placing more responsibility on the operators and holding them more
accountable for any misdemeanor that occurs on their systems.
Previously, banks
have tended to shy away from bearing the cost of fraud or
misapplication of their machines, a situation that often leaves
customers with bad encounters in ATM usage.
As a safeguard,
operators that do not comply with the Payment Card Industry Data
Security Standard (PCIDSS) would attract a fine of N50, 000 per week
until compliance is established. The PCIDSS is a global standard
established to help organisations that process card payments prevent
credit card fraud through increased controls around data and its
exposure to compromise.
The Central Bank
last year directed all e-payment platforms to migrate to the chip and
pin format payment card systems, which is a more secured payment card.
Banks that are yet to transfer all their customers to the new format
would be liable to a fine of N50,000 in addition to bearing full
liability for any fraud perpetrated with the old stripe card.
Specific punishment
“Failure to provide
audit trails and journals for ATM transactions will attract N50, 000
per week. Failure to comply with new policy of offsite ATM deployment
will attract a fine of N50, 000 per week until compliance is
established,” the CBN said.
Operators that fail
to establish help desk contacts or non functional help desk contacts
will attract a fine of N50, 000 for each day of infraction, while for
failing to disclose ATM surcharge to customers, the CBN will enforce a
refund of the surcharge.
The circular
further states, “Failure to respond to the customer or the CBN on ATM
complaints within 72 hours will attract a fine of N50, 000 per day for
each complaint after the 72 hours until the response is received,”
while failure to resolve any ATM dispute with evidence of resolution
within 14 days, the operator will refund the total money involved in
the fraud.
The CBN added that
other non-monetary sanctions that could be applied for these
infractions include naming the offenders at the Bankers’ Committee
Forum, suspension of offenders from participating in clearing
operations until the infraction is corrected, in addition to suspending
offenders from participating in Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS)
operations until the infraction is corrected.
