Banks to Now Assign Tracking Number to Customers’ Complaints

By Dipo Olowookere

Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) and other financial institutions operating in the country have been ordered by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to from Wednesday, January 2, 2019 assign a tracking number to every complaint received from their customers.

This directive was contained in a circular issued on Friday and signed by a director at the apex bank, Kofo Salam-Alada.

Apart from the above, banks, after receiving customers’ complaints, are also expected to issue an acknowledgment to the customer, which must contain the assigned tracking number.

In addition, the financial institutions must commence upload of complaints to the Consumer Complaints Management System (CCMS) on a daily basis.

In the circular, the central bank said the banks should always “comply with the timelines stipulated in the CCMS for resolution of the various categories of complaints, warning that non-compliance will attract sanctions in line with the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA), Cap B3, LFN 2004.”

The CBN explained in the circular that this development was in “furtherance of its mandate to promote a stable financial system,” adding that the CCMS was created to ease “complaints management to engender public confidence in the financial system.”