CBN fines Access Bank N25bn over failure to meet Cash Reserve Requirement

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has punished Access Bank PLC and other 15 financial institutions over failure to meet its 27.5 per cent Cash Reserve Requirement (CRR) obligation.

Access Bank PLC was debit N25 billion.

IDOMA VOICE reports the debit, which occurred last Friday, has left many stakeholders in the banking very upset as the apex bank recently suspended debiting banks for not meeting the requirement.

The last time CBN debited 16 banks and two merchant banks N175 billion was mid-December 2021.

In the latest debit, Zenith bank was the most debited bank on November 17, 2021, followed by Access Bank Plc and United bank for Africa Plc (UBA).

The breakdown of some affected banks revealed that, Zenith bank-N90 billion, Access bank-N25 billion, Unity Bank Plc- N500 million, FCMB Limited- N5 billion, and Stanbic Bank- N4 billion, Polaris- N3billion and UBA- N25billion.

The CBN had on December 8, 2021 debited seven banks and two merchant banks a sum of N29.6 billion.Analysts believe cash reserves are historically between 5 per cent and 10 per cent of LCY deposits.