CBN bars 9 commercial banks from forex transactions

The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has barred nine commercial banks from participating in all foreign exchange transactions and operations.

According to the apex bank, the commercial banks were barred following their failure to remit into the Treasury Single Account the sum of $2.12 billion belonging to the nation’s oil corporation, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).‎

The nine banks comprise of three tier-one lenders and another six tier-two deposit money banks. All the banks remain barred from foreign exchange operations until they fully remit the NNPC funds into government coffers via the Treasury Single Account.

The commercial banks, whose suspension would remain in force until they remit all funds to the TSA according according to the Central bank includes:

United Bank for Africa (UBA) -$530m;

First Bank of Nigeria (FBN)- $469m;

Diamond Bank Plc-$287m;

Sterling Bank Plc-$269m;

Sky Bank Plc -$221m;

Fidelity Bank -$209m;

Keystone Bank- $139;

First City Monument Bank (FCMB) -$125m;

and Heritage Bank-$85m, totaling $2.1bn @ N320/$ = N672bn.