The Central Bank of Nigeria yesterday announced that cheques can now be paid into savings accounts.
Before now, one could only pay cheques into current accounts with cash or transfers being the only options for sending money to a savings account, but no more.
In a circular signed by the Director, Banking & Payments System Department, Dipo Fatokun the CBN has validated the payments of up to N2m into savings accounts via cheques as long as the customer’s BVN number is linked.
The circular which was circulated among all financial Institutions yesterday said, “The CBN in furtherance of its efforts at strengthening the Nigerian payments system hereby issues the following directives: The removal of fixed interest rate on credit cards; Discontinuation of actual address verification in account opening for customers with the BVN; Banks should begin to embed BVN biometric data in payment cards issued henceforth, to facilitate offline BVN verification and biometric based customer authentication on such payment devices as Automated Teller Machines, ATMs, Point of Sales Terminals, POS, Kiosks, etc, Approval of BVN Watch-listing modalities and release by CBN of necessary Credit Risk Management System (CRMS) data, to facilitate its use for enriching the BVN watch-list; savings account customers with BVN should be allowed to deposit cheques worth not more than N2,000,000.00 (Two million naira) into their accounts, per customer, per day.”