Imported User:
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Friday said it had revised the guidelines for accessing its interbank windows and repurchase agreement for financial institutions.
In a circular on CBN’s website, it said that the revision was to unwind the measures put in place to cushion the effect of the global financial crisis.
The circular was signed by Mr A.O. Idris of the CBN’s Banking Supervision Department.
The circular said that the revised guideline was also to ensure that the CBN’s monetary policy on obtaining fund from the interbank market was strictly adhered to.
It ordered that banks and discount houses were no longer allowed to access funds from the interbank market repeatedly.
The circular read: `` It is part of the process of unwinding the extraordinary measures introduced in the wake of global financial crisis and to ensure the effectiveness of monetary policy.
``Any deposit money bank/discount house that obtains fund from any CBN lending window is not allowed to simultaneously place funds in the interbank markets.
``Deposit money banks/discount houses that also place funds in the interbank market are not allowed to concurrently access the window.”
The CBN warned that any erring bank would be suspended from the money market window.
According to the circular, any institution that contravenes any provision of this circular will be suspended from CBN money market window.
Besides, it added that the institution would forfeit the profits it would have made on the transaction.
The apex bank said that the circular took ``immediate effect’’.
It said that the directive superseded all directives relating to the above subject.
NAN recalls that in 2009, the CBN identified nine banks that were financially unstable as they depended solely on the interbank market for their operations.
