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CBN places 7,552 BVN accounts under close monitoring due to cybercrimes

May 3rd 2023, 2:20:51 pm

Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) discloses that 7,552 BVN-linked accounts have been placed under strict surveillance due to cybercrime issues.

Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) place 7,552 BVN-linked accounts under strict surveillance due to cybercrime issues.

The Bank Verification Number (BVN) which has become a very important requirement before any account is opened and maintained was introduced to properly identify account owners and also, checkmate and reduce fraud-related issues in the banking industry.

As of March 31, 2023, a total number of 57,431,355 BVN accounts have been created and enrolled and have continued to feature prominently in the bank’s Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements.

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In April, the CBN announced plans to initiate the removal of all accounts not associated with any BVN from the financial system.

This was confirmed by the Director, Risk Management Department and Chief Risk Officer, CBN, Blaise Ijebor, during the Prembly Compliance Breakfast Dialogue held last month. Ijebor revealed cybercriminals had exploited three loopholes in the banking sector to commit finance-related crimes.

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The loopholes include the Tier-1 account which refers to a bank account that can be opened with minimal or without any form of documents.

The requirement for such accounts to be opened include the presentation of a passport photograph while the account deposit limit is pegged at ₦50,000 deposit and an operating balance of ₦200,000 and ₦300,000.

The second loophole criminals exploit for fraud is the activities of some banks (Mainly digital banks) that fail to meet all the regulatory requirements. The third loophole is the hackers’ ability to notice and exploit every vulnerability that opens up access to anyone’s bank account.

However, Jimoh noted that the CBN’s Payments System Vision, PSV 2025, which is one of the bank’s approaches to curb cyber-security threats in the payment system, will expand payment options available to customers and strengthen regulation of the payments system.

Solomon Ekanem
Solomon is a digital content editor and a Business/Tech contributor for Pulse.

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