CBN Warns Banks Rejecting ATM’s Amid Customer Complaints

CBN Warns Banks switching companies, and other relevant parties warned against rejecting payment cards issued by other financial institutions.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) made the warning in a circular titled, ‘Re: Interoperability and Interconnectivity of the Payments System Infrastructure in Nigeria’ and issued it to all banks, switching companies, and others.

CBN’s directive comes days after the apex bank reduced withdrawals from Auto Teller Machines, Point of Sales (PoS), and over-the-counter.

There have been reports of some banks’ ATMs rejecting other bank cards and accepting only those belonging to their account holders.

Nigeria’s financial regulator issued guidelines on the operations of electronic payment channels to prevent further discrimination.

In the circular signed by the CBN’s Director, Payments System Management Department, Musa Jimoh, said merchant acquirers and other service providers must be card neutral.

According to the apex bank, any card issued by any Nigerian bank must be accepted by all POS terminals during transactions.

“The Central Bank of Nigeria has observed that a number of the acceptance devices deployed by banks discriminate between payment cards.

“For the avoidance of doubt, all certified payment acceptance devices deployed in Nigeria are required to accept ALL transactions arising from any card issued by any Nigerian bank.”

What you need to know

The CBN said the circular serves as a reminder of the following provisions of the Guidelines on operations of electronic payment channels in Nigeria (June 2020); 

Section 2.4.1.3; Merchant acquirers shall ensure that POS terminals purchased and deployed at merchant/retailers location through the CBN licensed Payment Terminal Services Provider shall accept all cards (card agnostic) 

Section 2.4.1.7; To achieve interoperability, all POS terminals deployed in Nigeria shall accept all transactions arising from any card issued by any Nigerian bank. Accordingly, acquirers and other service providers shall be neutral card entities that have no reason to promote or favour any card brand over the other; 

Section 2.4.1.8; Every acquirer must be able to accept all cards issued by Nigerian banks, whether through a direct license or via an arrangement with any other acquirer that is licensed under the relevant card/payment schemes.

CBN Warns Banks!