CBN Fines Access Bank ₦557m Over Forex Violations, Fictitious Transactions
THE Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has imposed financial penalties totalling approximately ₦557 million on Access Bank Limited over 12 regulatory infractions involving foreign-exchange transactions, inaccurate regulatory returns and other breaches of banking regulations.
The sanctions, which were imposed between February and June 2026, were disclosed in the unaudited half-year financial statements of Access Holdings Plc, the bank’s parent company, for the six months ended 30 June 2026.
According to the disclosures, some of the most significant violations involved recording foreign-exchange forward purchases and sales without eligible underlying transactions and submitting inaccurate regulatory returns containing ineligible and fictitious forward transactions.
The CBN imposed a ₦25 million penalty for recording foreign-exchange forward transactions without eligible underlying obligations.
It subsequently imposed two additional penalties of ₦50 million each for submitting inaccurate Foreign Currency Transaction Position and Net Open Position returns.
The latter involved the inclusion of what the regulatory disclosure described as fictitious forward transactions.
The three violations attracted combined penalties of ₦125 million.
Net Open Position returns are used by financial regulators to monitor banks’ exposure to foreign currencies and assess compliance with prescribed foreign-exchange risk limits.
The inclusion of fictitious or ineligible transactions in such returns raises concerns about the accuracy of regulatory reporting and the effectiveness of internal compliance controls.
In another major infraction, the CBN imposed a penalty of approximately ₦167.96 million on Access Bank for the late remittance of recovered funds relating to the Real Sector Support Facility–Differentiated Cash Reserve Requirement facility granted to Max Air.
The bank was also fined ₦100 million for purchasing foreign currency to convert a Dell staff loan using an expired indemnity letter.
Other violations included using foreign currency to price and pay for goods and services provided locally, allowing expatriates’ personal home remittances to exceed 100 per cent of their net income, and issuing foreign-currency credit cards involving $1.2 million without corresponding foreign-currency receivables.
The regulator further penalised the bank for processing transfers from ordinary domiciliary accounts without stating their purpose and allowing three third-party transfers to exceed the prescribed $10,000 daily limit.
Additionally, Access Bank was sanctioned for submitting foreign-currency general ledger records 16 working days late and failing to provide documents required for a joint CBN/Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation examination within the stipulated timeframe.
The total penalties amounted to approximately ₦556.96 million.
The financial statements indicated that the infractions were identified through regulatory examinations covering different periods, including April 2023 to March 2024 and April 2024 to March 2025.
The development comes amid continuing efforts by the CBN to strengthen foreign-exchange market regulation, improve transparency and enforce compliance among financial institutions.
Although the penalties represent a relatively small proportion of Access Holdings’ reported profit after tax of ₦266.72 billion for the first half of 2026, the nature and spread of the violations raise questions about the bank’s foreign-exchange transaction procedures, regulatory reporting systems and internal compliance framework.
The disclosures did not identify individual bank officials responsible for the infractions or provide details of any personal sanctions against members of management.
They also did not establish whether the bank had undertaken additional corrective measures following the regulatory findings.
