Tribunal fines Stanbic IBTC N120m over customer’s failed transaction

A Competition and Consumer Protection (CCP) tribunal sitting in Abuja has imposed a fine of N120 million on Stanbic IBTC Bank over the failure to complete a transfer request of a customer. 

A three-member tribunal, presided over by Sola Salako-Ajulo, gave the judgment on Thursday following an ex parte application filed by Deborah Solomon, a legal practitioner, on behalf of Clement Osuya (the customer).

In his petition, Osuya said the bank on two occasions failed to transfer N500,000 from his Stanbic IBTC account to his Access Bank account.

He claimed that the money was for the payment of school fees for his children.

He told the tribunal that on September 8, 2022, he filled a form under the NIS instant payment option for a transfer of N500,000.

Osuya said his Stanbic IBTC account was debited on both occasions but his Access Bank account was never credited.

He told the tribunal that the reversal on the first transaction was done after 24 hours while the second transaction was reversed after 72 hours.

He alleged that the neglect of duty of care by the bank caused him trauma, embarrassment and a dent in his reputation as he was forced to collect a loan.

Delivering judgement, Salako-Ajulo also ordered the bank to pay the claimant the sum of N1 million as the cost of filing the action.

The tribunal convicted the bank for contravening the provisions of section 130(1)(a) of the FCCP Act, 2018 and section 5(2)(8) and (9) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) regulation on instant interbank electronic transfers.

The court said the fine was imposed due to the bank’s failure to comply with the 10 minutes — or at most one-hour — mandatory timeline for failed transfers to be reversed as provided by sections 154 and 155 of the FCCP Act, 2018.

“The tribunal holds that in as much as the defendant (IBTC) failed to comply with the two instructions of the claimant to transfer the sums of N500,000 to another account in Access Bank, as no transfer took place at both times,” Salako-Ajulo said. 

“This defines that the defendant breached the banker-customer contractual relationship between the two parties.”

The court, however, refused to award N5 million to Osuya as compensation, on the grounds that he failed to prove any injury he suffered as a result of the failure of service delivery by the bank.

Marcel Osigbemhe, the bank’s counsel, blamed the failure of the transaction on the third-party NIPS service.

He also expressed his displeasure over the judgment. 

According to Osigbemhe, his client should not be convicted “because there were clearly no charges brought against it”.