Access Bank, Stanbic IBTC and United Bank for Africa are to pay N8000 million as fines to the Central Bank of Nigeria for violating regulations barring customers from transacting in cryptocurrencies.
A Bloomberg report released on Wednesday, said the penalties were part of CBN’s efforts at ensuring that banks implement an order to block trading in cryptocurrencies due to the threat they pose to Nigeria’s financial system.
The directive was contained in a circular issued by the CBN in February 2021.
In addition, the CBN had in November directed banks to close the accounts of two individuals and a company for allegedly trading in cryptocurrencies.
Despite these regulations, Nigeria accounts for the largest volume of cryptocurrency transactions outside the United States., according to Paxful, a Bitcoin marketplace.
The country also has the largest proportion of retail users conducting crypto transactions under $10,000, Chainalysis says.
