Recently revised bank charges by the Central Bank of Nigeria will take effect this month. The CBN had earlier issued a circular concerning the charges in April this year.
Here are key highlights of the charges:
- Naira debit card maintenance fees have been reduced from N1000 to N600 annually.
- Foreign currency denominated cards will be charged an annual maintenance fee of $20 or its equivalent.
- Charges for hardware token and replacement of a lost one has been increased to a maximum of N3500.
- Charges for electronic transfers have been reduced from N100 to N50. Previously, transfers cost N105, N5 being for VAT.
- Charges for hardware token and replacement of a lost one has been increased to a maximum of N3500
- The cost of acquiring/replacing/renewal of ATM cards has been left unchanged at N1000.
- Withdrawal from other bank ATMs after three withdrawals, also remains unchanged at N65
Implementation of the revised charges could lead to a huge drop in revenue for banks with a large number of retail customers. First quarter 2017 results of First bank show it made N18 billion from fee and commission income. Of this amount, N4 billion was from electronic banking fees.The bank may thus witness a decline in this profit segment going further. The CBN has however have left a cushion for commercial banks, with its compulsory enforcement of SMS for every transaction. Bank customers are given the option to opt out, but many will not exercise it due to the paper work involved.
(NairaMetrics)