Cheques Can Now Be Paid Into Savings Accounts - CBN Says

The Central Bank of Nigeria yesterday said cheques can now be paid into savings accounts. Before now, cheques were only paid into current accounts. In a circular signed by Director, Banking & Payments System Department, Dipo Fatokun and issued to all banks and financial institutions yesterday August 2nd, the apex bank said bank customers with savings account linked to their BVN can deposit a maximum of N2 million cheque per day.

The circular also stated that bank customers can now open a new account with another bank without the bank asking for their address since their addresses are in their BVN details. The circular reads in part

“The CBN in furtherance of its efforts at strengthening the Nigerian payments system hereby issues the following directives: The removal of fixed interest rate on credit cards; Discontinuation of actual address verification in account opening for customers with the BVN; Banks should begin to embed BVN biometric data in payment cards issued henceforth, to facilitate offline BVN verification and biometric based customer authentication on such payment devices as Automated Teller Machines, ATMs, Point of Sales Terminals, POS, Kiosks, etc, Approval of BVN Watch-listing modalities and release by CBN of necessary Credit Risk Management System (CRMS) data, to facilitate its use for enriching the BVN watch-list; savings account customers with BVN should be allowed to deposit cheques worth not more than N2,000,000.00 (Two million naira) into their accounts, per customer, per day.