Payments
Consumer group urging Central Bank of Nairobi to halt confiscation of ATM cards
April 22, 2021
The Consumer Initiative Organization of Nigeria has appealed to the Central Bank of Nigeria to eliminate the confiscation of cards withheld by ATMs in commercial banks, according to a press release.
Aliyu Ilias, executive director of the group, said commercial banks' ATMs have been seizing cards belonging to customers issued by other banks. It places a heavy burden on bank customers and cardholders who must then obtain new cards or accounts.
Withholding the cards was not, for the most part, the fault of the customer or cardholder, but was usually due to poor connectivity from the banks to the ATMs, Ilias said.
"Commercial banks have over the years perfected and operated a system of confiscation of cards including, but not limited to, credit and debit cards," Ilias said in the release. "This practice put in place by commercial banks in Nigeria ultimately forced cardholders to request and to pay for issuance of new cards by their respective banks."
