CBN suspends First Bank, Diamond, others from forex transactions

Citing non-remittance of all outstanding Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) funds in their vaults into the Treasury Single Account (TSA), the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has  suspended nine banks from further dealing in foreign exchange transactions (forex).

 The banks are  FirstBank of Nigeria (FBN) ($469m); Diamond Bank Plc ($287m); United Bank for Africa (UBA) ($530m); Sterling Bank Plc ($269m); Skye Bank Plc ($221m); Fidelity Bank ($209m); Keystone Bank ($139m); FCMB ($125m) and Heritage Bank ($85m).

  But, in a swift reaction, UBA in a statement explained that it has remitted all NNPC/NLNG funds in its vaults into the TSA with CBN.

UBA said:“Our attention has been drawn to report of the ban of UBA from the foreign exchange market by the CBN over the non-remittance of NNPC/NLNG dollar deposits”.

 The Bank added: “We wish to state very categorically that UBA has completely remitted all NNPC/NLNG dollar deposits.

“We thank all our numerous customers, business partners and other stakeholders who have reached out to us on account of this report,” said  Mr. Charles Aigbe, Head, Corporate Communications.