BusinessUpdate

Wema Bank Sinks Deeper: Breaches, BOFIA, CBN Directives, Cybersecurity Law, Others

By update Apr 10, 2024 #Cover
Wema Bank logoWema Bank logo

Wema Bank logo
Wema Bank logo

Wema Bank PLC has paid a whooping N61.350 million in one year for infractions, an indication that the bank may be on the downside in terms of iperformance.

This revelation is contained in the bank’s full-year 2023 financial statement, which showed that the lender contravened the cybersecurity law, a section of the Bank and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) circulars on Know Your Customers, among others.

On the cybersecurity framework contravention, Wema Bank received a fine of N2 million, while it was fined N20 million for breaching Section 19(3A) of BOFIA, 2020.

The b also paid the sum of N17.45 million for violating the CBN circulars on KYC.

Wema Bank was equally forced to part with further fine of N10 million for the late rendition of final returns. The CBN circulars on KYC were targeted at reducing money laundering and other forms of financial crimes.

Without doubt having sufficient information about your customer and making use of that information is the most effective weapon against being used to launder the proceeds of crime.

In addition to minimizing the risk of being used for illicit activities, it provides protection against fraud, reputational and financial risks and enables individual financial institutions to recognize suspicious activities,” the CBN says in its KYC manual.

Similarly, the bank paid a penalty of N8 million for Risk-Based Supervision (RBS) breaches, just as it was penalised for a regulatory breach on the CBN clearance, paying a fine of N2 million for the contravention.

For the late filing of its 2022 audited financial statements with the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX), the tier-2 lender was fined N1.9 million.

Meanwhile, Fraud and burglary are still big risks for the bank, which lost N256.387 million to these in 2023 as against N880.154 million lost by the bank to fraud and burglary cases in the corresponding period of 2022.

Wema Bank left 9,974 complaints unresolved as at December 2023. This is lower than 13,642 unresolved complaints reported in the corresponding period of 2022.

Various customers with these complaints demanded N10.843 billion from the lender over the issues.

The bank, however, refunded N11.258 billion to customers (apart from the N10.843 billion), the financial statement said.

By update

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