{"id":12772,"date":"2018-10-17T16:01:50","date_gmt":"2018-10-17T16:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=12772"},"modified":"2018-10-17T16:01:50","modified_gmt":"2018-10-17T16:01:50","slug":"senate-moves-against-illicit-excessive-bank-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=12772","title":{"rendered":"Senate Moves Against\u00a0Illicit, Excessive Bank Charges"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Senate on Wednesday urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to suspend the Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) card maintenance charges being deducted from customers.<\/div>\n
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\nThis resolution followed a motion on the illicit and excessive bank charges on customers\u2019 accounts, sponsored by Senator Olugbenga Ashafa.
\nThe Senate also called on commercial banks operating in the country to configure their machines to dispense up to N40,000 per withdrawal pending the outcome of the investigation by the Senate committees tasked with investigating the excessive and illicit bank charges.
\nSpeaking on the motion, the President of the Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki said: \u201cThis is a motion that affects the lives of every Nigerian\u200a\u2014\u200airrespective of what part of the country you come from or whatever political affiliation you might have. This is why we are here – to always defend and protect the interests of our people.\u201d
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President of the Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki with his deputy, Senator Ike Ekweremadu and the Leader of the Senate, Senator Ahmad Lawan, in Abuja yesterday. Photo source: Senate President’s Office.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nThe Senate President stated that the Senate must work to ensure that the Senate\u2019s resolutions on the excessive bank charges goes beyond the debate stage, so that whatever action the Upper Legislative Chamber takes, would come into effect.
\n\u201cThis Senate has done this many times before; when there was a hike in the mobile telecommunication data charges, we intervened and put an end to that. When there were discrepancies and increases in electricity tariffs we also took action. We have done this on a number of similar cases. Therefore, on this, I want us to take effective resolutions,\u201d Saraki said.
\nOther Senators who contributed to the debate, called on banks to review their charges.
\n\u201cThe common man is also a victim,\u201d said Senator Emmanuel Bwacha, \u201cBanks declare profits and you wonder where these profits are coming from\u200a\u2014\u200ait\u2019s from the sweat of the common man. Let us come up with a law that puts banks on their toes.\u201d
\n\u201cIt won\u2019t be out of place to institute a committee that will call on the CBN to tell us what these charges are about. The Senate by fiat should abolish charges if they can\u2019t be verified,\u201d said Senator Bala Ibn Na\u2019Allah.
\n\u201cThe Senate must take a serious stand on this issue. Nigerians are really suffering. The banking system is not encouraging. I had an issue, took it to the bank and was refunded but how many Nigerians can do this? The issue needs to be addressed,\u201d stated Senator Kabiru Gaya.
\n\u201cFor me, this is a major step that we are taking. This is because I introduced the first ATM machine that came into Nigeria over 25-years ago,\u201d the Senate President, Dr. Saraki told his colleagues, \u201cNow, after 25-years, we should have grown out of these excessive charges and moved on. So, I believe that this something that we must address to create an environment that protects all Nigerians, because these kind of charges in this economy affects everyone.\u201d
\nThe Senate further directed its Committees on Banking, Insurance & other Financial Institutions and Finance to conduct an investigation into the propriety of ATM card maintenance charges in comparison with international best practices and report back to the Senate.
\nThe Senate also directed the aforementioned committees to invited the Governor of the CBN to appear before it to explain why the official charges as approved by the CBN are skewed in favour of the banking institutions as against the ordinary customers of the banks.
\nThe Senate also enjoined the Consumer Protection Council (CPC) to look into the various complaints of excessive and unnecessary charges by banks in the country.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Senate on Wednesday urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to suspend the Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) card maintenance charges being deducted from customers.   This resolution followed a motion on the illicit and excessive bank charges on customers\u2019 accounts, sponsored by Senator Olugbenga Ashafa. The Senate also called on commercial banks operating in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":12773,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12772\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}