First City Monumental Bank (FCMB) has been named among banks that remove N48.5 billion from customers’ accounts as charges for maintenance in six months.
Account maintenance costs are levied on all customer-initiated debit transactions, and the bank collects these fees at the time of the transaction.
The amount debited is at least 10% of the total customers’ deposits as at the end of June 30, 2021 The Bank Customers Association of Nigeria (BCAN) has urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to rethink and probe account maintenance fees.
According to a report, Ten commercial banks, including FCMB generated about N48.5billion from maintaining customers’ accounts in the first six months of the year.
The banks in the prior six months of 2020 had raked N32.62 billion for account maintenance charges on customers’ savings, current and term deposits
According to the report, between January to June FCMB removed, under the debit for account maintenance procedure, N2.2 billion during the six months period.
Meanwhile, Bank Customers Association of Nigeria (BCAN) had before now, asked the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to investigate how banks debited their customers.
Sola Salako, then-President of the BCAN, in 2018 characterized the account maintenance costs as a fraud, underlining that the CBN is aiding banks in generating money by doing nothing.
“We strongly oppose the CBN’s account maintenance fees, which were implemented in 2016.
“It’s just another way for banks to take money from their customers while they do nothing.
“In Nigeria, banks just charge for account maintenance,” she explained.
