The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has warned that it will not hesitate to report any bank customer making unsubstantiated and illegitimate claims on foreign exchange transactions to law enforcement agencies for nvestigation and prosecution.

The warning is sequel to the unprecedented volume of claims by private entities,individuals, law firms and government agencies that foreign currency funds allegedly transferred to them by foreign entities have yet to be credited to their accounts with Nigerian banks.

According to the CBN, it has been inundated with claims and in some
instances claimants alleged that the funds were withheld by either the beneficiary bank in Nigeria or the CBN and requested the assistance of the apex bank towards releasing the funds to them. The requests are usually supported with fake documents such as SWIFT MT103, SWIFT Ack copy, etc. it added.

The CBN further notes that, petitioners’ claims that the alleged expected inflows
for onward credit into the accounts of private business entities are trapped in the CBN is not only purious but deceitful.
The CBN therefore advised the lgeneral public to be careful with such unauthentic SWIFT messages and documents containing spurious claims of non-application of substantial foreign currency funds allegedly transferred into the beneficiary’s account.

A press statement made available to BusinessUpdate ,the CBN notes ” It has become imperative to state that the SWIFT ack copy and SWIFT MT103 that these claimants usually attach as evidence of remittance to beneficiary banks in Nigeria are not reliable.
The SWIFT messages are always not traceable on the SWIFT platform, and the funds have not been received to enable their application to the beneficiary’s account”
.
In a situation where a fund transfer beneficiary’s receiving bank claims non-receipt of funds remitted by the foreign entity (sending customer), instead of escalating such issue to CBN or Law Enforcement Agencies, the standard practice is for the sending customer to contact the sending bank to send a tracer to trace where the fund is hanging and recall it. The CBN adds.

For the avoidance of doubt, the CBN further maintained, that petitioners’ claim that the alleged expected inflows
for onward credit into the accounts of private business entities are trapped in the CBN is not only spurious but deceitful.
The general public is therefore advised to be careful with such unauthentic SWIFT messages and documents containing spurious claims of non-application of substantial foreign currency funds allegedly transferred into the beneficiary’s account.that the CBN neither provides correspondent banking services for Nigerian banks in foreign payments nor maintains accounts for private business entities

The general public is therefore advised to be careful with such unauthentic SWIFT messages and documents containing spurious claims of non-application of substantial foreign currency funds allegedly transferred into the beneficiary’s account.