Fidelity bank, one of the nine Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) accused by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) of not remitting over $2.274 billion from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) into the Treasury Single Account (TSA) said that it has paid over $288million contrary to reports
The bank said this today added that it repaid over $288m of the funds in line with the advised repayment schedule.
The apex bank on Tuesday came hard on the financial institutions for their culpability by banning them from doing business in the foreign exchange market.
According to the CBN, Fidelity bank is yet to remit the sum of $209 million it collected on behalf of the federal government from the national oil corporation.
Fidelity bank, in an electronic mail to its customers yesterday said that although the market condition remains quite challenging, it will continue to honour it obligations and operate with the highest level of corporate governance.
In a message titled, “Clarification on Temporary Suspension from FX Market” the bank said, “At the commencement of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) in 2015, Fidelity bank advised NNPC and the regulators with a schedule of repayment for the NNPC/NLNG Dividend dollar deposits.”
The mail read, “You might have read about the recent developments in the industry where the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced a temporary suspension of nine commercial banks from the foreign exchange market due to the non-remittance of NNPC/NLNG deposits.”
It continued, “At the commencement of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) in 2015, Fidelity bank advised NNPC and the regulators with a schedule of repayment for the NNPC/NLNG Dividend dollar deposits. Fidelity bank has repaid over $288m of these funds in line with the advised repayment schedule.”
The bank informed its depositors that they should continue to operate their domiciliary account as this development will not affect their deposits and loans (local and foreign currency
“Please note that you can continue to operate your domiciliary account with Fidelity and this development will not affect your deposits/loans (local and foreign currency), remittances, transactional services and electronic banking services.” The bank said
According to the bank, “Although the market condition remains quite challenging, we will continue to honour our obligations and operate with the highest level of corporate governance. “
“In the interim we are engaging with the other 8 banks involved, stakeholders and the regulators to resolve this issue quickly and ensure our return to the FX market”, the bank explained further.
