Don’t Borrow From Us To Fund Forex, Auctions, CBN Warns Banks, Others

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has warned commercial banks as well as authorised dealers to desist from accessing its discount windows to fund foreign exchange as well as Treasury Bills and Open Market Operations auctions.

This was made known to authorised dealers in a circular issued by the CBN Director, Financial Market Department, Angela Sere-Ejembi. The circular which was on access to the CBN discount windows noted that some authorised dealers have not been adhering to the stipulations according to its circulars dated August 1, 2012 and August 8, 2016 referenced FMD/DIR/GEN GIR/03/006 and FMD/DIR/GEN/CIR/07/005, respectively.

The CBN discount window includes the Standing Lending Facility (SLF), the Automated Repo Conversion (AREPO), the Funding for Liquidity Facility (FfLF), and the Tenored Repurchase Transactions (REPO).

The latest circular issued at the weekend stated that for “Open Market Operations: Participants with successful bids at the Open Market Operations (OMO) auctions are to refrain from accessing the discount window on the auction date. Failure to comply shall result in the reversal of allotment.”

Also on Government Securities it said dealers “with successful bids at the government securities auctions (e.g., Nigerian Treasury Bills (NTBs), Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) Bonds and Sukuk), are not permitted to access the CBN discount window on the settlement date. Requests for SLF, FfLF and REPO on the settlement date will not be permitted. AREPO and conversion of Intraday Liquidity Facility (IDF) to FfLF on the settlement date, as well as running REPO shall attract a penal charge of five per cent (5.00%) flat on the allotment value.

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“Participants with successful foreign exchange bids and transactions are not to access the discount window on both auction and transaction settlement dates. Failure to comply shall result in the cancellation of the bids or transactions.

“This Circular takes immediate effect. All authorized dealers are hereby required to comply accordingly.”