Nigerian banks agree to freeze accounts of all customers who do not have BVN numbers

NIGERIAN commercial banks will hold an emergency meeting tomorrow to fashion out modalities to comply with a court order directing them to freeze accounts without bank verification numbers (BVNs) and publish the names and details of such customers.

Last week, the federal high court in Abuja ordered the Central Bank of Nigeria and commercial banks to disclose all accounts in their custody and the balances in such accounts. It also ordered the banks to disclose the details of all such accounts, their owners and their proceeds in their affidavit of compliance deposed to by their chief compliance officers.

In addition, the court also made an interim order directing the banks to freeze all the said accounts by stopping all outward payments, operations or transactions pending the hearing of the substantive application seeking the forfeiture of the balances in the accounts to the federal government. Furthermore, the banks were also directed to disclose any investments made with funds from these accounts without the BVN in any products.

Spokespersons for some of the banks said that they would comply if there was no court ruling negating the order within the time stipulated for compliance. Bank secretaries and legal teams of the 19 banks are scheduled to hold an emergency meeting tomorrow morning to fashion out their plan for compliance.

Gbolahan Joshua, Fidelity Bank's chief information officer, said:  “Fidelity Bank will comply and publish the names once there is no challenge to the ruling/order within the stipulated period.”

Oyinade Adegite, Guaranty Trust Bank's spokesman added:  “We have started taking steps towards compliance. We have been trying to collate the names and bank accounts that will be affected, so if there is no contrary order, we will comply."

Access Bank’s spokesman Abdul Imoyo, said, “It is a management decision and I am sure steps are being taken in that direction. It is a court decision, so9 we will have to see if there is no appeal to that.”

Heritage Bank’s spokesman, Fela Ibidapo, said the bank would comply too. Matthew Obiazikwor, a spokesman for Unity Bank, said the bank had frozen bank accounts without the BVN and would publish the names of the affected customers as soon as it was in possession of the court order.