The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has instructed commercial banks and other financial institutions to demand a valid court order before it releases customer’s Bank Verification Numbers, BVN.
This was made known in a circular containing an amended regulatory framework for Bank Verification Number (BVN) operations and watch-lists for Nigerian financial system, which was released yesterday by the apex bank on its website.
In the circular signed by the Director, Banking and Payments system department, Mr Dipo Fatokun, the CBN stressed that any requests for BVN information must be accompanied with a court order.
DAILY POST reports that the directive which was addressed to all banks, switches, mobile money operators, payment solution providers, microfinance banks and others takes immediate effect.
It stated that “Section 1.6 of the Framework, Eligibility for Access to the BVN which states that, ‘The following entities may have access to BVN information, subject to the approval of the CBN,’ is hereby amended to read thus, ‘the following entities may have access to BVN information, after providing a valid Court Order, subject to the approval of the CBN’.
“Consequently, the CBN by this circular hereby informs all stakeholders that the provision of a valid court order is one of the pre-requisites for the release of BVN information to applicants.”
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