The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has refuted rumours making the rounds that it is planning to convert the foreign currency domiciliary account deposits in either dollars or British pounds of customers into naira.
CBN, in a statement last night, said it has no intention to tamper with the foreign exchange currencies in the accounts of customers.
The apex bank’s rebuttal was on the heels of recent directive to all banks to furnish it with details of domiciliary accounts of customers latest January 29, 2015.
The CBN had requested for the list of all domiciliary account holders, stating name, account number and balances as at January 29, 2015; total balances, list of corporate domiciliary account holders and their balances, list of individual domiciliary account holders and their balances.
It also included the list of public sector institutions’ domiciliary account holders and their balances, and mode of lodgement to the account for each of the above transactions under the same period, either cash or by wire transfer.
Domiciliary accounts are accounts maintained and operated in foreign currencies other than the Nigerian naira, and the deposits, according to data from investment firm, Renaissance Capital (Rencap), were said to be equivalent to 21 percent of total deposits of N17 trillion in the Nigerian banking system as at half year 2014 or $19.5 billion.
The circular has been causing anxiety in the industry as speculations were rife that CBN may either convert the accounts to naira or possibly extend the action to naira accounts.
“The development has put us in a tight corner, as some of our customers are demanding to know why, and others are threatening to close their accounts and move their funds abroad,” chief executive of a tier two bank told BusinessDay.
Read also: Foreign exchange reserves fall to $31.57bn
Another banker, who also pleaded anonymity, said, “We will lose business, should these customers make good their threats to move their funds abroad.”
Friday Ameh, an energy analyst and a customer of one of the banks, said, “Despite the assurances by the CBN, most customers are anxious and are planning to move their funds abroad or keep them in their houses. Since it is more profitable to have a person’s cash in foreign currencies, the best thing will be to look for any other options other than still maintaining the accounts.”
Bismarck Rewane, chief executive officer, Financial Derivatives Company, in his current Lagos Business School Breakfast meeting note, said the apex bank may be concerned about the high level of domiciliary balances at an average of 1 percent per annum.
Rewane believes that “domiciliary transactions are used for round-tripping”, while acknowledging that it is “a breach of confidentiality.”
This “will fuel a rush of transfers to overseas banks, a fear that the CBN will now seek for information on naira accounts and could become a tool for taxation or witch-hunting,” he said.
Johnson Chukwu, chief executive, Cowry Asset Management Limited, said that under normal circumstances, such information is given out by the banks on the order of a court.
Chukwu advised the CBN to come out with a clearly defined and consistent policy that should engender confidence in the banking public, adding that the development is capable of discouraging people from keeping their accounts and consequently impacting negatively on the financial inclusion campaign of the CBN.
But in the official reaction yesterday, CBN, through Ibrahim Mu’azu, director, corporate communications, said, “The attention of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been drawn to a malicious rumour purporting that the CBN is planning to convert the foreign currency domiciliary accounts (US dollars or British pounds sterling) of customers in Nigerian banks into naira.
“The CBN wishes to refute this rumour in the strongest possible terms. This story is categorically and completely untrue and has no basis whatsoever in the bank’s pronouncements or plans. The CBN has never contemplated such an action and has no intention to do so.”
