You Can Now Pay Cheques Into Your Savings Account, Says CBN

This was contained in a circular signed by CBN’s Director, Banking & Payments System Department, Dipo Fatokun and issued to all banks and financial institutions in the country as part of four new guidelines for the banking sector released Tuesday August 2, 2016.

Before now, cheques were only paid into current accounts.

According to the circular, the apex bank stated that bank customers with savings account linked to their Bank Verification Number (BVN) can deposit a maximum of N2 million cheque per day.

The circular further noted that bank customers can now open new account with other banks without the bank demanding for their address, since their addresses are with their BVN details.

“The CBN in furtherance of its efforts at strengthening the Nigerian payments system hereby issues the following directives: The removal of fixed interest rate on credit cards; Discontinuation of actual address verification in account opening for customers with the BVN;

“Banks should begin to embed BVN biometric data in payment cards issued henceforth, to facilitate offline BVN verification and biometric based customer authentication on such payment devices as Automated Teller Machines, ATMs, Point of Sales Terminals, POS, Kiosks, etc.

“Approval of BVN Watch-listing modalities and release by CBN of necessary Credit Risk Management System (CRMS) data, to facilitate its use for enriching the BVN watch-list; savings account customers with BVN should be allowed to deposit cheques worth not more than N2,000,000.00 (Two million naira) into their accounts, per customer, per day,” the bank said.

It will be recalled that the Central Bank of Nigeria through the Banker’ Committee and in collaboration with all banks in Nigeria on February 14, 2014 launched a centralized biometric identification system for the banking industry tagged Bank Verification Number (BVN).

The BVN Project, was in line with the federal government’s plan to create a safe, reliable and efficient payments system in the country.

This new initiative by the CBN is imperative for the time, however it may lead to closure of current accounts by majority of low income current account holders, who opened the accounts specifically for the purpose of cheque payments.