As the barrage of banks‘ charges on customers in the country appears to continue unabated, the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria and other key stakeholders have called on the Central Bank of Nigeria to extend its regulatory functions to every activity of the commercial banks as a way of strengthening the gains of the consolidation programme. They stressed the need for the CBN to monitor closely all charges meted out by the banks to customers.

The President, ANAN, Mr. Samuel Nzekwe, said apart from the interest rates charged by banks, which are often a function of the benchmark monetary policy rate, other charges by the banks have been found to be exorbitant. He said the banks are acting in dubious manners in their relationships with customers.
He said, ”What the banks are currently doing is dubious and I think they are over-stepping their boundaries by increasing their charges on customers at will. It is a breach of trust on the relationship that exists between them and the customers. The CBN should stand up to help out in this situation by regulating the banks more effectively so that the customers can be protected. This is necessary because most customers have complained of some unjustifiable charges on them by their bankers and it is expected that the CBN should regulate every activities of the banks in the interest of the depositors, without whom the banks can not exist.”

He argued that there was the existence of a Bankers‘ Tariff already, benchmarked on 2.5 per cent as interest rate charge for the banks. The United States Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson, had on Thursday , said that the impact of global credit crisis could have been minimised if only the regulatory bank in the US effectively carried out its core function of regulating the banks. This, Nzekwe said, was a good lesson to be learnt by the CBN. He said if the people did not feel the impact of the banks on issues that affected them directly, then the purpose of the consolidation was meaningless.

The Director, Institute of Legal Studies, Prof. Bolaji Owosanoye, said the CBN needed to step up its regulatory oversight functions on the banks, especially in key areas that boardered on charges which directly affect the customers.