CONTRARY to insinuations in some quarters, the Central Bank of
Nigeria (CBN) new policy regime mandating banks to go after
customers who default on the repayment of their loans by seizing
their deposits in other accounts is backed by law.
Speaking with a cross-section of experts at the weekend, they
said the CBN Act, 2007 as amended, empowers the apex bank to issues
guidelines and directives to persons and institutions under its
supervision.
Firing the first salvo, Mr. Lawrence Agboola Jompe, a member of
the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, Lagos Branch, said,
“The forfeiture order is legally binding, because it is the
regulatory body of the country’s financial sector. This is because
the CBN has been empowered by the Act that established it.”
Jompe, who is the Chief Executive of Victleo Investment Ltd,
while noting that the CBN pronouncement is not a law of the
parliament, however said that it carries the weight of the law,
whether it is gazetted or not as long as it is the financial
regulatory authority in the country.
Echoing similar sentiments, Babatunde Fabian, a public affairs
analyst, said the CBN has the right legal framework to so mandate
the banks.
He cited Section 45 subsection 5 and 6 of the CBN Act, to back
his claims. Besides, he said, the apex bank has power to prohibit
any bank which fails to comply with any directive issued under this
section, from extending new loans and advances and from undertaking
new investments, until the bank complies with the directive to the
satisfaction of the Bank.
It would be recalled that the apex bank took the decision to
blacklist loan defaulters at the end of the 345th Bankers Committee
meeting in Lagos penultimate Monday.
The meeting presided over by Deputy Governor, Financial Sector
Surveillance, CBN, Mrs. Aisha Ahmad, alongside, Chief Executive
Officer, Access Bank, Mr. Herbert Wigwe, Chief Executive Officer,
GTBank, Mr. Segun Agbaje, Chief Executive Officer, Unity Bank, Mrs.
Tomi Somefun, and the Director, Banking Supervision, Alhaji
Abdullahi Ahmed, agreed that bank borrowers would be made to sign
an agreement that if there was a default, the bank would have a
right to access the borrowers other accounts.
The bankers also decided that vital information should be
demanded from bank borrowers such as Bank Verification Number, Tax
Identification Number among other documents.
He disclosed that that to complement this initiative, the
Bankers Committee will develop a credit scoring system which will
enable people with good credit history to easily access loans. “If
your score is high, you will be able to access credit easily. That
is the whole idea. So thereabout, you are going to have a good
credit scoring rate or position to be able to access credit. If you
are not clean, you won’t be able to access loan.