Court Fines Stanbic IBTC N120million Over Customer’s Failed Transaction

A Competition and Consumer Protection (CCP) tribunal sitting in Abuja has imposed a fine of N120 million on Stanbic IBTC Bank over the failure to complete a transfer request of a customer.

A three-member tribunal, presided over by Sola Salako-Ajulo, gave the judgment on Thursday following an ex parte application filed by Deborah Solomon, a legal practitioner, on behalf of Clement Osuya (the customer).

In his petition, Osuya said the bank on two occasions failed to transfer N500,000 from his Stanbic IBTC account to his Access Bank account.

He claimed that the money was for the payment of school fees for his children.

He told the tribunal that on September 8, 2022, he filled a form under the NIS instant payment option for a transfer of N500,000.

Osuya said his Stanbic IBTC account was debited on both occasions but his Access Bank account was never credited.

He told the tribunal that the reversal on the first transaction was done after 24 hours while the second transaction was reversed after 72 hours.

He alleged that the neglect of duty of care by the bank caused him trauma, embarrassment and a dent in his reputation as he was forced to collect a loan.

Delivering judgement, Salako-Ajulo also ordered the bank to pay the claimant the sum of N1 million as the cost of filing the action.

The tribunal convicted the bank for contravening the provisions of section 130(1)(a) of the FCCP Act, 2018 and section 5(2)(8) and (9) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) regulation on instant interbank electronic transfers.

The court said the fine was imposed due to the bank’s failure to comply with the 10 minutes — or at most one-hour — mandatory timeline for failed transfers to be reversed as provided by sections 154 and 155 of the FCCP Act, 2018.