Mitigate High Rate Of Failed Transactions, Reverse Immediately, Reps Urge Banks

The House of Representatives has urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to direct banks to work on their systems in mitigating failed transactions and immediately reverse failed transactions without the customer’s prompting.

It also asked the Central Bank of Nigeria to direct banks to reverse customers’ funds within the stipulated periods whether or not the customers lodge complaints.

This followed the adoption of a motion titled: “Need to Restrain Commercial Banks from Holding Funds Reversal Beyond the Date Prescribed by the Central Bank of Nigeria, moved by Hon. Emmanuel Ukpong-Udo at plenary on Tuesday.

Moving the motion, Ukpong-Udo noted that according to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc, over 133.5 million Nigerians use banks.

He also noted that CBN released a press release on June 8, 2020, revising timelines for reversals and resolution of refund complaints such as: “failed “On-Us” ATM transactions (when customers use their cards on their bank’s ATMs) shall be instantly reversed from the current timeline of three days.

“Where instant reversal fails due to any technical issue or system glitch, the timeline for manual reversal shall not exceed 24 hours;

Refunds for failed “Not-on-US” ATM transactions (where customers use their cards on other banks’ ATMs) shall not exceed four hours from the current 3-5 days.

“Resolution of disputed/failed POS or Web transactions shall be concluded within 72 hours from the current five days; all banks are directed to resolve the backlog of all ATM, POS, and Web customer refunds within two weeks starting June 8, 2020.”

The lawmaker expressed worry that Nigeria’s financial sector is facing serious concerns due to persistent complaints of failed customer transactions, with over 69% of complaints in July 2023 encompassing failed transactions.

“Cognizant of the rapid increase in numbers of failed banks and the magnitude of the problem which has reached an unprecedented level; alarmed that the high rate of failed bank transactions is causing a decrease in business investments and lending across the country,” he argued.