A Nigerian tier-1 bank, with a significant market capitalization, has been authorized by the court to recover funds mistakenly credited to customer accounts. The error occurred during the processing of duplicate transactions involving unapplied NIP inflows.
After an internal investigation by the bank, it was discovered that some of the funds had been transferred to other banks. Consequently, the bank sought a court order to restrict accounts that received the duplicate funds, which was granted by the Federal High Court in Lagos.
Following a period of service disruption due to a core banking application switch, customers reported issues with transaction alerts and unstable banking channels. The bank later issued a public apology for the inconvenience caused.
Although the court documents did not directly link the duplicate transactions to the system migration, challenges related to core banking upgrades were a prevalent theme in the banking industry in 2024.
The Central Bank issued a directive requiring banks to obtain regulatory approval before embarking on such upgrades in the future, in response to the disruptions faced by customers during the migration period.