The House of Representatives voted on Tuesday to advance a bill aimed at safeguarding victims of unauthorized withdrawals from bank accounts to its second reading.
Titled “A Bill for an Act to Amend the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA), 2020, to Provide for the Protection of Victims of Fraudulent Withdrawals from Accounts and for Related Matters (HB.1168),” the proposed legislation is sponsored by Hon. Moses Oluwatoyin Fayinka (APC, Lagos).
Leading the debate on the bill’s general principles, the lawmaker emphasized that the legislation seeks to prevent illegal financial transactions in which funds are transferred from a customer’s account without their consent.
He said, “There is an alarming rise of bank fraud or unauthorised withdrawal of deposit funds in Nigeria. In the banking industry, about 101,801 cases were reported in 2022 and 48,703 cases were reported in 2023, making bank customers lose several billions of naira.
“This Bill is in consideration of the uprising of various financial crimes within the country, with many of such passing through financial institutions, or we can call it the commercial banking system.”
The lawmaker called the attention of his counterparts, Saying, ”We all know that virtually all banking transactions are done electronically, which means that transactions can either be ATM, POS, direct cash transfer, fast cash, and many others, in which many bank customers have fallen victim and have lost their hard-earned fortune without help from any side.
“The bank has the obligation to protect customers’ funds by way of monitoring its movement. Most of us here today, before money leaves our account, the bank, through its account officers, makes contacts to know if the customer is in authorisation of such a transaction; however, banks have neglected the duty of protecting their customers as regards the safeguarding of their monies in the case of e-transactions.”
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He said when passed, the piece of legislation would stop banks from covering up such syndicates without reporting such action to the receiving bank and the police for necessary actions.
“For the banks, both the paying and receiving banks to get the culprit arrested and prosecuted and to pay all necessary bills in the course of the recovery processes, make a refund back to the victim’s account without charges,” he said.
The lawmaker added that, “The amendment will go a long way to curtail electronic means of funds stealing that pass through the banking platforms to their destination, and as we know its nature, these amendments are long overdue.”
