The Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc has approached the Federal High Court in Lagos seeking approval to freeze accounts linked to N13.66 billion in suspicious transactions across multiple banks.
In the suit, NIBSS is asking the court to authorise Post No Debit restrictions on accounts that received funds through what it described as unauthorised transfers caused by a technical malfunction on its payment platform.
The financial institutions listed include Access Bank, Ecobank Nigeria, FairMoney Microfinance Bank, First City Monument Bank, Fidelity Bank, Globus Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, Kuda Microfinance Bank, Lotus Bank, Moniepoint Microfinance Bank, Parallex Bank, Polaris Bank, Providus Bank, Sterling Bank, TAJ Bank, Titan Trust Bank, United Bank for Africa, Wema Bank, and Zenith Bank.
NIBSS is also seeking an order directing the banks to place liens on accounts linked to the Bank Verification Numbers of affected customers, flag them for monitoring, and assist in recovering the funds.
According to court documents, the incident arose from a system malfunction on 6 September 2024 on the Nigeria Instant Payment platform. NIBSS said the glitch led to abnormal transaction processing, resulting in credits being posted to customers’ accounts without corresponding debits from originating accounts. It described the situation as “dry posting.”
The agency said the affected transactions occurred between 6 and 9 September 2024 and were traced to 176 accounts across the listed institutions. Total exposure from the incident stands at N13.66 billion.
NIBSS told the court it notified the banks immediately after discovering the anomaly and requested restrictions to prevent the funds from being withdrawn or transferred. It claimed the banks declined to act without a court order.
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The agency argued that without urgent intervention, the funds risk being dissipated, making recovery difficult. It cited Central Bank of Nigeria regulations on electronic fund transfers, stating it is empowered to work with financial institutions to trace and recover disputed transactions.
NIBSS is urging the court to grant the application to safeguard the integrity of the national payment system and ensure recovery of the disputed funds.
