CBN fines 4 Banks N5.6bn over Illegal Repatriation of Funds

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has fined four banks “for breaching Nigeria’s forex regulations,” a statement by its Director of Corporate Communications, Isaac Okorafor has said.

Standard Chartered Bank was fined N2.4 billion, Stanbic IBTC Bank fined N1.8bn, Citibank fined N1.2bn, and Diamond Bank fined N250 million.

The banks are “to also refund a total of $8.134bn for breaching Nigeria’s forex regulations on MTN’s illegal capital repatriation,” CBN said on its Twitter page on Wednesday.

CBN said the banks allegedly remitted foreign exchange with irregular Certificates of Capital Importation (CCIs) to offshore investors of MTN Nigeria Communications Ltd.

The CBN statement said the apex bank’s investigation revealed that Standard Chartered Bank illegally repatriated $3.45 billion dollars for MTN, adding that $2.63 billion, $1.766 billion, and $348 million were repatriated by Stanbic IBTC, Citibank, and Diamond Bank, respectively between 2007 and 2015.