The House of Representatives has decided to investigate Zenith Bank’s purported freezing of several of its clients’ bank accounts.
This resolution was a response to Femi Bamishile’s (APC, Ekiti) motion in plenary on Wednesday regarding an urgent matter of public interest.
Mr. Bamishile, who was moving the motion, told the MPs that Zenith Bank offers an app for foreign exchange transactions. He claims there has been no transaction cap on the app for years.
He stated that bank customers have been using the platform for transactions but that the app stopped recently.
Mr Bamishile said shortly after the App stopped, the bank also froze the bank accounts of some of the customers using the software.
“This App has been ongoing for some time, and there is no cap to the limit of money that can be bought or transferred either by an individual or business.
“Three weeks ago customers’ accounts were frozen and a message was sent out by Zenith Bank to their customers, asking them to refund the money they transferred using the App,” he said.
He cited a case of an unnamed man the bank is coercing to refund $100,000 after conducting transactions via the App.
“A young man was invited and detained by the Special Fraud Unit. He was made to pay $100,000 back to the bank and also made to give an undertaken under duress stating that he made an illegal transaction,” the legislator said in the motion.
According to Mr. Bamishile, Zenith Bank should be equally responsible for any interruption, as it profited from every transaction completed through the app.
After the motion was approved, Speaker Abbas Tajudeen authorized the committee on digital banking to investigate the matter and find a cooperative solution.
The committee is expected to report back to the House in two weeks.
