CBN to Invest Funds in Dormant Accounts, Others in Treasury Bills

By Aduragbemi Omiyale

Funds in dormant accounts for a period of 10 years in financial institutions as well as other unclaimed funds would be moved to a special account for investments in government securities, especially treasury bills, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said.

This is part of the draft guidelines on the Management of Dormant Accounts and Other Unclaimed Balances by Banks and Other Financial Institutions in Nigeria released by the CBN this week.

The banking sector regulator said it would move these funds into a special account to be known as the Unclaimed Balances Trust Pool Account, from where they would be utilised on government securities.

However, the central bank said the money would be moved back to beneficiaries within 10 business days after such a request is made. But it did not specifically state if interests from the investment would be paid to the original owners of the funds.

“The Central Bank of Nigeria shall open and maintain an account earmarked for the purpose of warehousing unclaimed balances in eligible accounts. The account shall be called Unclaimed Balances Trust Fund Pool Account,” a part of the guidelines said.

The bank said it shall “refund the unclaimed funds to the beneficiaries not later than ten (10) working days from the date of receipt of the request.

“Where it is imperative to extend the timeline, a notice of extension shall be communicated to the requesting FI stating reasons for the extension.”

The apex bank named the accounts to be affected by these new guidelines as, “Current, Savings and Term deposits in local currency; Domiciliary accounts; Deposits towards the purchase of shares and Mutual Investments; Prepaid card accounts and wallets; Proceeds of uncleared and unpresented financial instruments belonging to customers or non-customers of FIs; Unclaimed salaries and wages, commissions, and bonuses.”

Others are, “Proceeds of stale local and/or foreign currency drafts not presented for payment by beneficiaries; Funds received from a correspondent bank without sufficient details as to the rightful beneficiary and/or a recall of funds made to the remitting bank to which the Nigerian bank’s account had not been debited and A judgment debt for which the judgment creditor has not claimed the amount of judgment award.”