The House of Representatives has opened an investigation into the purportedly unlawful freeze of Zenith Bank clients’ FX and Naira accounts due to a USD transfer.
The House adopted the resolution after Hon. Femi Babasile’s motion was made at Wednesday’s plenary session.
The member who was presenting the resolution noted that there is now a platform available on Zenith Bank’s banking app that allows for the purchase and transfer of foreign exchange.
Babasile emphasized that this app has been available for a while and that there is no upper limit on the amount of money that may be moved or purchased by a company or a person.
The legislator mentioned that three weeks prior, Zenith Bank had blocked the accounts of its clients and sent them a notice requesting that they return the money they had transferred and purchased using the app for either personal or professional use.
“We are concerned that a young man was invited and detained by the Special Fraud Unit, and that under duress he was forced to give an undertaking stating that he had made an illegal transaction and to repay $100,000 to the bank,” the speaker added.
“Also concerned that the major players in the industry are being subtly approached in order to safeguard their brands, while the targets of today are the smaller names and brands.”
Babasile expressed concern that there are irregularities which need prompt resolution, saying the bank also made profit from the transactions and should be investigated and made to refund all they made as profit.
The House, therefore mandated its committee on Digital Banking to look into this issue and come to an amicable resolution and report back to the house in two weeks.
It also mandated the committee to ensure that a final resolution where all parties affected are duly compensated for the loss they must have incurred during the period of the account suspension.
