Excess charges: Customers urge CBN to caution DMBs
Bank customers have expressed concern over the commitment of deposit money banks (MBs) to erode their savings through multiplicity of charges on their deposits.
They are therefore urging the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to check the excessive deductions from depositor’s accounts by banks.
They said that customers of banks said that some of the charges, which cut across different services the banks, were indicative of the fact that depositors are not adequately protected by the apex bank’s regulator.
The bank customers’ worry was reinforced by recent public opinion poll by NO1 polls, which showed that 80 percent are expressing concern over what they refer to as, incessant and indiscriminate bank charges levied on their accounts by commercial banks.
Findings from the poll revealed that about 7 in 10 respondents or 76 per cent were of the opinion that the CBN has not done enough to defend bank customers from the onslaught of incessant bank charges from commercial banks, particularly in this recession, when ordinary Nigerians are feeling economic pains.
In the same vein, respondents seized the opportunity of the poll to urge the CBN to regulate bank charges (31 percent) and/or compel banks to reduce transaction charges (28 percent); as well as, those with extreme views that CBN should scrap bank charges (23 percent). These were some of the key findings from the Bank Charges Poll conducted by NOIPolls in the week commencing June 5th, 2017.
The poll, which was prompted by recent media reports and commentary on bank charges and deductions from customer accounts without prior communication, also revealed that 71 per cent Nigerians consider several charges as unfair relative to services rendered by the banks.
According to the pool findings, 72 per cent of respondents said they have been seeing several withdrawals from their bank accounts; 49 per cent said that they have been seeing deductions, such as, SMS charges, 46 per cent respondents said that have been seeing deductions attributed to ATM / Debit Card maintenance, while 38 per cent, said that they noticed withdrawals tied to 65 Naira charge after 3 withdrawals per month, amongst other charges.
In the same vein, respondents, therefore, urged the CBN to regulate bank charges (31 percent) and/or compel banks to reduce transaction charges (28 percent); as well as those with extreme views that CBN should scrap bank charges (23 percent). These were some of the key findings from the Bank Charges Poll conducted by NOIPolls in the week commencing June 5th, 2017.
