United Bank for Africa (UBA), Fidelity Bank Plc, and Stanbic IBTC Bank, the domestic unit of Standard Bank Group Ltd have been fined a total of 614.3 million nairas by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for failing to comply with a regulatory order sanctioning clients from dealing in cryptocurrencies. The CBN sanctions have been put in place to aid in Nigeria’s fight against corruption.
Additionally, a customer from United Bank for Africa has been fined 100 million nairas, full-fledged commercial bank, Fidelity Bank Plc, has been fined 14.3 million nairas and Stanbic IBTC Bank has been fined 500 million nairas for two accounts that were allegedly used for crypto transactions.
Wole Adeniyi, the CEO of Stanbic IBTC, indicated that the bank complied with the CBN regulations, but that sanctioned transactions may have gone undetected through its system. Adeniyi went on to say that the CBN was able to discover the relevant transactions thanks to improved capabilities, which prompted the bank to make the technology public.
However, this all remains surprising as the West African country is known for having one of the highest volume of crypto transactions in Africa (second to the United States of America on the global scale) and has the highest share of retail users conducting transactions under $10,000 according to Chainalysis.