Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has issued a warning to bank customers regarding the potential risks associated with fraudulent SWIFT messages during foreign exchange (FX) remittances.
Gatekeepers News reports that SWIFT messages, which are transmitted through the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication network, are essential for facilitating financial transactions between banks and financial institutions globally.
In a statement released by Hakama Sidi-Ali, the acting Director of the Corporate Communications Department, the CBN highlighted that it has received numerous reports from stakeholders expressing concerns about undelivered foreign currency transfers into their Nigerian bank accounts.
Sidi-Ali pointed out that various stakeholders—including private entities, individuals, law firms, and government agencies—have reported that foreign currency funds they believe were transferred to them by overseas entities have not yet been credited to their accounts with Nigerian banks.
“In some instances, the claimants alleged that the funds were withheld by either the beneficiary bank in Nigeria or the CBN and requested assistance towards releasing the funds to them,” She said.
“The requests are usually supported with fake documents such as SWIFT MT103, SWIFT Ack copy, etc.
“It has become imperative to state that the SWIFT ack copy and SWIFT MT103 that these claimants usually attach as evidence of remittance to beneficiary banks in Nigeria are not reliable.”
Sidi Ali added that the SWIFT messages are always not traceable on the SWIFT platform and the funds are not received to enable their application to the beneficiary’s account.
“In a situation where a fund transfer beneficiary receiving bank claims non-receipt of funds remitted by the foreign entity, the standard practice is for the sending customer to contact the sending bank.
“The purpose for the sending bank to send a tracer to trace where the fund is hanging and recall it.
“For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to state emphatically that the CBN neither provides correspondent banking services for Nigerian banks in foreign payments nor maintains accounts for private business entities.
“Consequently, petitioners’ claim that the alleged expected inflows for onward credit into the accounts of private business entities are trapped in the CBN is not only spurious but deceitful.”
The CBN spokesperson urged the general public to be careful with such unauthentic SWIFT messages and documents containing spurious claims of non-application of substantial foreign currency funds allegedly transferred into the beneficiary’s account.
She also warned that the CBN would not hesitate to report any bank customer making unsubstantiated and illegitimate claims to law enforcement agencies for investigation and prosecution.
