Emerging report indicates that the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has fined four top Banks in the country, for flouting its directive on cryptocurrency transactions.
Recall, that the CBN had in February 2021, ordered all Banks to close the accounts of anyone who transacts in cryptocurrency in the country.
According to the CBN, dealing in cryptocurrency or facilitating payments for cryptocurrency exchanges is prohibited in Nigeria
In a report by Bloomberg, on Wednesday, the CBN has now fined at least 4 Banks for failing to comply with that regulation.
The Banks are: Stanbic IBTC Bank, Access Bank, United Bank for Africa, UBA, and Fidelity Bank.
Stanbic IBTC Bank, according to the report was fined N200 million, for two accounts alleged to have been used for crypto accounts.
Access Bank was fined N500 million, for failure to close customers’ crypto accounts, UBA was fined N100 million, and Fidelity Bank was fined N14.3 million.
Stanbic IBTC however, told Bloomberg that it had followed the CBN directive, but that some transactions may have passed through its system undetected.
Nigeria, according to Paxful, a Bitcoin Marketplace, accounts for the largest volume of cryptocurrency transactions outside the United States of America, USA.
More news later…
