The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has slashed its electronic transfer, ATM and card maintenance fees after reviewing the charges and rates for banking activities in the country.
In the CBN new “Guide to Charges by Banks Other Financial and Non-Financial,” the apex bank said the guideline applies to financial and non-financial institutions under its licence or regulation.
The guide shows that the CBN has reduced the charges on some transactions including Standing Order Charge (In-Branch); ATM Maninance Fees; Electronic Fund Transfers and Bulk Payments among others.
In the latest guideline, CBN said standing Standing Order Charge for intra-bank will be free compared to the N300 in the 2017 guideline.
For Interbank Transfers, the CBN cut the charges to a maximum of N50 per transaction compared to the N300 held in 2017.
Bills Payment (Including Bills Payment through other E-channels) is Negotiable subject to a maximum of N500 per beneficiary payable by sender, a review from the N1,200 or 0.75 per cent for a biller or merchant to pay.
Electronic Funds Transfer has also been reviewed downwards to N10 charge for a transaction below N5000; N26 for the transaction of N5001 to N50,000 while transactions above N50,000 will be charged N50.
Withdrawals on other banks’ ATMS have been reduced from N65 to N35 after the third withdrawal within the same month.
The CBN also reduced ATM Bill Payment from N100 to N50. Debit card maintenance charges that were N100/Month have been removed in the new guideline.
It will be recalled that last year, the CBN imposed an N6.98 service charge for customers using the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data services (USSD).