 A Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered 71 banks and financial institutions to place debit restrictions on accounts linked to N1.34 billion suspectedly stolen from customers of Access Bank.
Justice Akintayo Aluko issued the order on Friday following an ex parte application filed by Ifeoma E. Enyinnaya, counsel to Access Bank.
The application was filed on August 13, after the bank reported a major fraud incident involving several customer accounts.
According to court documents, the fraud was perpetrated through the bank’s internet banking platform known as the Access SME App.
The bank told the court that its internal investigation revealed that N1,340,425,393 was transferred from customers’ accounts without authorization. The funds were allegedly moved into accounts domiciled with Access Bank and 71 other financial institutions.
Access Bank asked the court to issue several orders aimed at restricting access to the funds and helping the bank trace and recover the money.
Among the requests was an order directing the affected financial institutions to place a post-no-debit, PND, restriction on the accounts and Bank Verification Numbers, BVNs, linked to the allegedly unauthorized transfers.
The bank also requested that the affected institutions disclose the amounts remaining in the beneficiary accounts and provide details of the funds recovered.
It further asked the court to order the banks and other financial institutions to watchlist the BVNs connected to the accounts that received the funds until the stolen money was fully recovered. Justice Aluko granted the first three reliefs sought by the bank.
However, the judge declined to grant the fourth relief, which sought an order directing the reversal of recovered funds into an Access Bank account.
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The court held that the fourth request appeared to amount to a final order and therefore could not be granted at the ex parte stage.
The financial institutions named as respondents include several commercial banks, microfinance banks, payment service banks and fintech companies.
They include Ecobank, Fidelity Bank, First Bank, FCMB, GTBank, Keystone Bank, Kuda, OPay, PalmPay, Polaris Bank, Stanbic IBTC, Sterling Bank, Union Bank, UBA, Wema Bank and Zenith Bank, among others.
The list also includes several microfinance institutions and payment platforms through which some of the allegedly stolen funds were transferred.
The court’s restriction is intended to prevent the movement of the funds pending further proceedings and investigations into the transactions. The case follows Access Bank’s discovery of the unauthorized transactions on August 12.
The bank said its internal investigation uncovered the movement of the funds to multiple accounts, prompting it to approach the court for urgent measures to prevent further dissipation of the money.
The court order allows the financial institutions to identify the amounts that remain in the affected accounts and disclose the relevant information to support the recovery process.
Further proceedings will determine the next steps regarding the funds and the parties involved in the alleged fraud.
The development underscores the increasing efforts by financial institutions and law enforcement authorities to track and recover funds moved through multiple banking and fintech channels in cases of suspected financial fraud.
The Cable
