Fraudulent Transactions: CBN Places Over 6,000 BVNs Under Watch

Central Bank of Nigeria has placed over 6,000 Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) of customers under watchlist for transactions linked to fraud in the first quarter (Q1) of 2022.

CBN disclosed this in its recently-released financial stability June 2022 report.

The report stated that the number of watchlisted BVNs for fraudulent activities rose by 13.09 percent to 6,047 BVNs, from 5,347 in the last quarter of 2021.

It added that 11,871 BVNs of deceased persons were watch-listed in the review period.

The report also stated that the CBN conducted an assessment of 28 banks and the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System (NISS) to ascertain compliance with the regulatory framework for BVN operations and watchlist for the Nigerian banking industry.

It further said that the assessment revealed some infractions necessitating some regulatory actions.

The report also said 2.72 million BVNs were enrolled in the first half of this year to bring the total number of enrolled BVNs to 54.65 million.

Also, the number of accounts linked with BVNs was 130.57 million out of 148.46 million active accounts in the considered period.

“The number of accounts linked with BVNs was 130,569,656 out of 148,462,947 active customer accounts, while the number of watch-listed BVNs associated with fraud and deceased persons stood at 6,047 and 11,871, respectively,” the report reads.

In March, 2022, four Nigerian deposit money banks (DMBs) lost a total of N1.77bn to fraudulent activities involving the banks’ employees and consumers in 2021.

The affected banks included Access Bank Plc, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, First Monument City Bank, and Wema Bank.