The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had yesterday released a list with 9 banks who were to be sanctioned for violations regarding TSA.
Among the 9 banks were UBA, FirstBank and 7 others who were banned from the foreign exchange market, for hiding over $2 billion belonging to Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) from the Treasury Single Account (TSA).
According to the Cable, Tokunbo Martins, director, banking supervision of CBN, made the announcement on Wednesday night, saying: “Further to the directive of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to all Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) to return all outstanding unremitted NNPC/NLNG foreign currency, this is to confirm that the United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc has remitted all outstanding NNPC/NLNG deposits in its possession to NNPC’s Treasury Single Account (TSA) at the CBN.
“Accordingly, the United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc has been re-admitted into the Foreign Exchange Market effective Thursday, August 25, 2016.”
While UBA is off the hook, it seems the other banks are still in trouble over the incident.
First City Monument Bank (FCMB) had released yesterday a statement stating that while they were on the list of sanctioned banks, they had been forthcoming with information and had been transparent in their dealings.
President Buhari is also said to have been briefed on the situation and the sanctions that were to be taken against the defaulting banks.