The Central Bank of Nigeria has reduced the withdrawal fee charged for the use of other banks’ Automated Teller Machines by 46.15 per cent from N65 to N35.
The N35 ATM fee according to the CBN should be imposed on customers after the third withdrawal within one month.
The new directive was part of the highlights of the new Guide to Bank Charges released by the CBN on Sunday.
The Guide, which replaces the Guide to Charges by Banks and Other Financial Institutions issued in 2017, takes effect from January 1, 2020.
The apex bank said it may be reviewed from time to time to reflect changes in the business environment.
The CBN also asked banks to charge a maximum of N1 per mille for customer induced debit transactions to third parties and transfers or lodgements to the customers’ account in other bank on current accounts only.
The guidelines also pegged the Advance Payment Guarantee to a maximum of one per cent of the APG value in the first year and 0.5 per cent for subsequent years on contingent liabilities.
The CBN explained that the current Nigeria Instant Payments charges for the use of Unstructured Supplementary Service Data will attract a charge of N100 per N20, 000 subject to cumulative N60, 000 daily withdrawal.
Also, for cards linked to savings account, it said the maintenance fee had been reduced to a maximum of N50 per quarter from N50 per month.
This would henceforth amount to N200 per annum instead of N600 currently being charged by banks.
Furthermore, the CBN said there would be no more charges for reactivation or closure of accounts such as savings, current and domiciliary accounts.
It added that status enquiry at the request of the customer such as confirmation letter, letter of non-indebtedness and reference letter would now attract a fee of N500 per request.
On current account maintenance fee, the guideline expressly stated that this would be applicable only to current accounts in respect of customer-induced debit transactions to third parties and debit transfers/lodgements to the customer’s account in another bank.
Bank customers had in recent times been complaining about the series of charges being imposed on their accounts by banks.
The list of subsisting bank charges includes ATM card maintenance charge, which attracts over N50 monthly, Account Maintenance fees, which vary with volume of transactions, while an SMS notification fee of about N200/month, with multiple token maintenance fees are charged on all customer accounts.
Explaining the need for the review, the CBN Director, Corporate Communications Department, Mr Isaac Okorafor, said the apex bank carried out the review for banks, Other Financial Institutions and non-bank financial institutions, in order to align with market developments.