The Competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal in Abuja has imposed N120 million fine against the Stanbic IBTC Bank to be paid into the tribunal’s account over the failure to make a transfer for a customer.
In a split decision of the tribunal of two to one, the panel
convicted the bank for contravening the provisions of Section 130(1)(a) of the
FCCP Act, 2018 and Section 5(2)(8) and (9) of the Central Bank of Nigeria
Regulation on Instant Interbank Electronic Transfers for failing to comply with
10 minutes mandatory timeline for transfers as guided by sections 154 and 155
of the FCCP Act.
The leading judgement delivered by Honourable Sola Salako
Ajulo, also ordered the payment of N5 million damages and N1 million cost of
filing the petition to the claimant after the tribunal found that he was not
entitled to the N3 million compensation he demanded having failed to prove any
injury he suffered as a result of the services of the bank.
The verdict was concurred to by Honourable Ibrahim Yakubu of
the tribunal, while the presiding judge, Honourable Chuma Mbonu dissented.
The orders followed a petition by a customer, Clement Osuya,
challenging the failure of the bank on two occasions to transfer the sum of
N500,000 from his IBTC account to another of his account with the Access Bank,
which he claimed was for the payment of school fees for his children.
According to him on September 8, 2022 in Abuja he filled out
a form under NIPS Instant Payment option for a transfer of the sum of N500, 000
to his Access Bank account which was not delivered after he was debited, which
forced him to visit the bank on September 9, 2022 for a reversal, after which
he again instructed that the transfer, which was not also delivered after he
was debited.
The bank, through its counsel, Marcel Osigbemhe Esq, had
blamed the failure of the transaction to the third-party NIPS service, which
the tribunal rejected.
“The tribunal holds that inasmuch as the defendant (IBTC)
failed to comply with the two instructions of the claimant to transfer the sums
of N500,000 to another account in Access Bank, as no transfer took place at
both times, defines that the defendant breached the banker-customer contractual
relationship between the two parties. This issue is resolved in favour of the
claimant,” Ajulo said.
However, in his dissenting judgement, Mbonu held that the
preliminary objection of the IBTC was meritorious as the tribunal lacked the
jurisdiction to entertain the claim as it was not a regular court as described
under Section 146 of the FCCP Act, and that its powers rests on the appellate
level of the Commission’s complaints’ investigation.
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