Culled—Proshare
September 3, 2018/News & Investigations
Sequel to the order by the CBN which directed four commercial banks, namely Standard Chartered Bank, Stanbic IBTC Bank, Citi Bank and Diamond Bank to pay fines totaling N5.3b as well as refund alongside MTN, the sum of $8.1b said to have been repatriated illegally, banks have begun engaging the CBN to state their sides of the story.
On Wednesday, 28 August 2018, the CBN directed four banks, namely Citibank, Diamond Bank, Stanbic IBTC and Standard Chartered Bank, to repay the sum of N5.87 billion for allegedly issuing irregular CCIs on behalf of some offshore investors of MTN Nigeria Communications Limited. Standard Chartered Bank was fined N2.4 billion, Stanbic IBTC N1.8 billion, Citibank Nigeria N1.2 billion and Diamond Bank N250 million. MTN was also directed by the apex bank to refund $8.134 billion to its coffers.
The apex bank said its investigation was triggered by “allegations of remittance of foreign exchange with irregular Certificates of Capital Importation (CCI)” between 2007 and 2015, in “flagrant violation of extant laws and regulations of Nigeria, including the Foreign Exchange (Monitoring and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1995 of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Foreign Exchange Manual, 2006”.
The institutions have begun engaging the CBN to state their sides of the story, especially as the apex bank vetted and approved the transactions in question. Sources within CBN who are familiar with the development say that all of the banks as well as MTN have been engaging key CBN officials, including its governor, by phone calls, physical visits and even formal correspondence, in the hope that the CBN ruling may be revisited. “It’s been a hectic two days for all of us, but it is well worth it,” our source who understandably declined to be named, said. “What is important is that the CBN has sent a clear signal to all parties that it cannot be business as usual anymore.” He added that “even though we are not averse to reviewing the cases, I cannot assure you that the CBN is in any position to review these fines which are the end-result of painstaking investigations.”
