CBN Issues Warning Over Dubious Foreign Currency Transfer Claims
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has warned Nigerians that there is a rise in fraudulent foreign currency transfer claims.
The apex bank raised the alarm through a statement signed by its Acting Director of Corporate Communications, Mrs Hakama Ali, on Tuesday.
The CBN, in its statement released, cautioned Nigerians against falling for falsified SWIFT documents being used to authenticate this fraud.
It revealed that private entities, individuals, law firms, and government agencies have filed multiple complaints regarding foreign funds transferred to their accounts remaining uncredited.
The complaints usually come with fake SWIFT MT103 forms and acknowledgement copies that the SWIFT network cannot verify, CBN said.
This, the CBN held, shows that the alleged transfers never happened.
“Recently, the Central Bank of Nigeria has been inundated with claims by private entities, individuals, law firms and government agencies that foreign currency funds allegedly transferred to them by foreign entities have yet to be credited to their accounts with Nigerian banks.
“In some instances, the claimants alleged that the funds were withheld by either the beneficiary bank in Nigeria or the CBN and requested the assistance of the bank towards releasing the funds to them. The requests are usually supported with fake documents such as SWIFT MT103, SWIFT Ack copy, etc.
“It has become imperative to state that the SWIFT ack copy and SWIFT MT103 that these claimants usually attach as evidence of remittance to beneficiary banks in Nigeria are not reliable. The SWIFT messages are always not traceable on the SWIFT platform, and the funds have not been received to enable their application to the beneficiary’s account.
“In a situation where a fund transfer beneficiary’s receiving bank claims non-receipt of funds remitted by the foreign entity (sending customer), instead of escalating such issue to CBN or Law Enforcement Agencies, the standard practice is for the sending customer to contact the sending bank to send a tracer to trace where the fund is hanging and recall it,” the statement from CBN read.
In its defence, the CBN pointed out that it does not provide correspondent banking services for Nigerian banks, neither does it hold accounts for private businesses.
“For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to state emphatically that the CBN neither provides correspondent banking services for Nigerian banks in foreign payments nor maintains accounts for private business entities. Consequently, petitioners’ claim that the alleged expected inflows for onward credit into the accounts of private business entities are trapped in the CBN is not only spurious but deceitful,” the statement clarified.
Rather than escalating the matter to the CBN or law enforcement, the apex bank advised Nigerians with authentic cases to contact the sender’s bank to trace and recover the funds.
In its view, this is the standard procedure to follow for resolution of this matter.
For those making false claims, the CBN warned that they would be forwarded to appropriate authorities to be investigated and prosecuted.
