http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/08/cbn-directs-banks-accept-cheques-savings-account/

LAGOS—The Central Bank of Nigeria,
CBN, yesterday, directed banks
operating in the country to accept
deposit of cheques into savings
account and to begin to embed Bank
Verification Number, BVN in payment
cards.
The CBN, in a circular signed by
Director, Banking & Payments
System Department, Dipo Fatokun,
dated July 28, 2016, sent to all banks
and financial institutions and
released, yesterday, stated: “The
CBN in furtherance of its efforts at
strengthening the Nigerian
payments system hereby issues the
following directives:
“The removal of fixed interest rate
on credit cards; Discontinuation of
actual address verification in account
opening for customers with
customers with the BVN; Banks
should begin to embed BVN
biometric data in payment cards
issued henceforth, to facilitate
offline BVN verification and
biometric based customer
authentication on such payment
devices as Automated Teller
Machines, ATMs, Point of Sales
Terminals, POS, Kiosks, etc.”
Other directives by the CBN to banks
include: “Approval of BVN Watch-
listing modalities and release by CBN
of necessary Credit Risk Management
System (CRMS) data, to facilitate its
use for enriching the BVN watch-list;
savings account customers with BVN
should be allowed to deposit
cheques worth not more than
N2,000,000.00 (Two million naira)
into their accounts, per customer,
per day.
Emefiele CBN Governor
It will be recalled that in furtherance
of efforts in the development of a
safe, reliable and efficient payments
system in Nigeria, the CBN in
conjunction with the Bankers’
Committee, undertook some major
initiatives. One of such was the
launching of the BVN Project in
February 2014, which was sponsored
by the bankers committee.
The CBN had observed the progress
so far in the implementation of BVN
Project. In order to increase the
tempo in the enrolment by the
Deposit Money Banks (DMBs)
customers on the the BVN, and to
start reaping the benefits of the
project, it is imperative to stipulate
milestone for the implementation of
the Project.
The CBN had in an earlier circular
stated: “All stakeholders are hereby
advised to note and implement the
following: That by March 2015,
transactions valued at
N100,000,000.00 (One hundred
million Naira) and above, should be
allowed for customers with the BVN;
(These include, but not limited to,
money transfers, loans,
contingencies, etc). It saidt that by
June 2015, all banks’ customers
should have BVN. Any bank customer
without the BVN would be deemed
to have inadequate Know Your
Customer, KYC. DMBs should intensify
efforts to sensitize their customers
on the aforementioned
development and enrol them for the
BVN accordingly. It further said that
DMBs are required to submit to
NIBSS, as part of their weekly returns
on Customers Account Details, the
account status of customers that
have submitted their BVN and those
that have not. NIBSS in turn, will
render consolidated returns to the
CBN, on weekly basis, starting from
1st October 2015.”
It should be noted also that the CBN
had told banks operating in the
country that bank accounts without
the BankVerification Number (BVN)
would be operated as “No Customer
Initiated Debit”.
The apex bank said this in a circular
titled: “Classification on Accounts
with BVN Related Issues” sent to all
commercial banks and posted on its
website.
The circular had said that such
accounts would remain dormant
until the account holder obtains and
attaches the BVN to the account.
The circular read: “It has, however,
come to our notice, that some
customers could not link their BVN to
their accounts.This is due to
discrepancies between the record
on the BVN database and the records
on the core banking applications of
the DMBs.
“Such customers can approach their
bankers for correction, but some of
the banks could not effect the
corrections.”
The apex bank, in the circular, said
that in view of this development, it
had become imperative for the CBN
to issue the clarifications. It said that
such clarifications included
corrections of Date of Birth on the
BVN record. This should be allowed
once, with supporting documents,
evidencing the correct date of birth.
The CBN said that change of names
due to marriage should be allowed
with supporting documents, such as
marriage certificates or affidavits,
among others.
The apex bank said that minor
correction of names, due to
misspelling should be allowed, with
supporting documents such as
international passport, showing the
correct name.
According to CBN, change of names
that are totally different should only
be allowed after customer has
produced supporting documents.
The CBN had said that this should be
reported to the Nigerian Financial
Intelligence Unit (NFIU) as a
suspicious transaction by the bank
customer.

Nice Development..

Abeg when would CBN also direct the commercial banks to epp us with low account balance with chop money.

Long overdue