While the banks may have been waiting in the wings to reap handsomely from huge penalties, the customers on the other hand may be perfecting plans to evade any form of rip off. From Monday, withdrawals and lodgments above N500, 000 and N3 million will attract processing fee of 3 and 5 percent for individuals and corporate bodies, respectively.
Processing fee for lodgments above the limit for individual customers has been reviewed downwards from 10 percent to 2 percent, while the processing fee for lodgments above the limit for corporate bodies has also been reviewed downwards from 20 percent to 3 percent. However, ministries, departments and agencies, MDAs, specialised banks – microfinanace banks and primary mortgage banks, diplomatic missions, embassies, multilateral and aid donor agencies have been exempted from penalties and charges.
To this effect, customers have devised new means of evading payment of penalty and meeting their increasing need for cash on daily basis through opening of multiple accounts, while banks on the other hand are tactically refusing customers on the counter (OTC) transactions, advising them rather to use the automated teller machines (ATMs), which require paying commission on the transactions.
Also, most customers have resorted to patronising savings accounts as against the current accounts, thereby evading the Cost on Transactions (COT) charged, while at the same time reducing the usage of cheque booklets. On the part of the banks, they are exploring options of hooking up more than one account to an ATM, so as to earn them commission whenever a customer decides to make transactions through the self serving machines.
As a practical demonstration of their commitment to internet banking services, one of the banks sent an e-mail to its customers last week: “Dear valued customer, with a view to providing you with the most efficient and secure solutions available from …Bank, we introduced the Hardware Authentication Token for Internet Banking with the intention of eventually phasing out the email and SMS software tokens.
“Consequently, from July 1, 2012, we will discontinue the use of our email and SMS software authentication tokens for internet banking transfers. Further to this, the daily transfer limit using the software token has been reduced with immediate effect from….”
But, responding, one of the customers said, “I have decided to open two accounts with preference for savings to beat the COT charges and others through the use of ATMs. The banks are in the spirit of KYC (Know Your Customers), discouraging on the counter transactions. I think, what the present condition requires is patronage of savings, though will require my personal presence at the banks, but at least, I should be able to evade some of the charges, including payment for cheque books.”
BusinessDay investigations reveal further that despite the recent concessions from the CBN, occasioned by the reviews of transaction limit and charges, customers are unanimous in their submission that there is a general demand for cash either for transactions, speculative and precautionary motives, in view of the current uncertainty in the country.
But, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, CBN governor, recently said that the review was not borne out of any pressure but based on realities on ground, saying “we have said from the very beginning that we were going to look at the limits and the charges closer to the time of implementation. “I think people didn’t believe that we were going to do it, so we started cashless Lagos and will start on April 1.
We have done our best in terms of bringing in the required technology, there would be challenges, in terms of culture, attitudes of people in terms of use of technology, but challenges have never been a reason not to have change. We will deal with them as they come along, and we have sufficient confidence and in our ability to deal with them,” Sanusi stated at the post MPC meeting recently in Abuja.
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