CBN fines Sterling Bank N218m for breaching nine rules

Sterling Bank was fined N218 million for breaching nine regulations of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the company’s annual financial statement for the period of 2022, released on Wednesday, revealed, as reported by The Ripples Nigeria

CBN fined Sterling Bank N62 million as payment for an infraction by defaulting bank under Nigeria Electricity Market Stabilization Facility (NEMSF).

The financial regulator also charged Sterling Bank N56 million for the late rendition of regulatory returns and N52 million fine for the risk-based supervisory report 2019 – 2020.

Sterling Bank reported the central bank fined it N20 million for the acquisition of property for the establishment of new branches without CBN’s prior approval.

The lender was also fined N10 million for the closure of two branches in 2020 without CBN’s prior approval. In addition, Sterling Bank received a penalty of N4 million for risk asset examination failure in 2020.

Another contravention by Sterling Bank that incurred a CBN fine was a breach of the CBN Guideline on Operations of Electronic Payment Channels in Nigeria, in June 2020 on the resolution of ATM downtime/faults, which attracted N2 million penalty.