By Abubakar Yunus Abuja
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says it placed over 6,000 bank verification numbers (BVN) of customers under watchlist for transactions linked to fraud in the first quarter (Q1) of 2022.
The apex bank made this known in its recently-released financial stability June 2022 report.
According to the report, the number of watchlisted BVNs for fraudulent activities rose by 13.09 percent to 6,047 BVNs, from 5,347 in the last quarter of 2021.
It also noted that 11,871 BVNs were watch-listed as deceased persons in the review period.
The report said the CBN conducted an assessment of 28 banks and the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System (NISS) to ascertain compliance with the regulatory framework for BVN operations and watchlist for the Nigerian banking industry.
It added that the assessment revealed some infractions and regulatory actions were taken.
Meanwhile, 2.72 million BVNs were enrolled in the first half of this year, the report said, bringing the total number of enrolled BVNs to 54.65 million.
Also, the number of accounts linked with BVNs was 130.57 million out of 148.46 million active accounts in the considered period.
“The number of accounts linked with BVNs was 130,569,656 out of 148,462,947 active customer accounts, while the number of watch-listed BVNs associated with fraud and deceased persons stood at 6,047 and 11,871, respectively,” the report reads.
In March, 2022, four Nigerian deposit money banks (DMBs) lost a total of N1.77bn to fraudulent activities involving the banks’ employees and consumers in 2021.
The banks were Access Bank Plc, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, First Monument City Bank, and Wema Bank.
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