The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has unveiled a stringent new regulatory framework designed to protect bank customers and hold financial institutions to a higher standard of accountability.
The draft guidelines, released on November 26, 2025, introduce a critical 72-hour window for customers to report fraudulent transactions, coupled with a mandatory 16-working-day cycle for banks and fintechs to investigate and issue refunds for Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud.
This intervention comes as fraud losses in Nigeria’s banking sector skyrocketed by 603% to ₦3.29 billion in the first quarter of 2025, with over 12,000 cases reported.
The new rules establish a clear, time-bound protocol for handling APP fraud, defined as schemes that trick customers into authorising payments to fraudulent accounts via channels like SMS, email, or WhatsApp. Under the proposed framework, victims must report incidents within 72 hours, providing key transaction details.
Financial institutions must acknowledge receipt within 24 hours and launch an immediate investigation, which must conclude within 14 working days, followed by a refund within 48 hours of resolution. In multi-bank fraud scenarios, the entire reimbursement process is capped at 16 working days from the initial report, with the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) empowered to withhold settlements linked to identified fraud.
A core principle of the guideline is the assignment of liability. Financial institutions that fail to detect or freeze fraudulent transactions due to weak controls, inadequate systems, or staff collusion will bear the full cost of the refund. If neither the bank nor the customer is found at fault, the loss is shared equally.
However, customers who act negligently, participate in the fraud, or report after the 72-hour deadline forfeit their right to reimbursement, barring exceptional circumstances like illness or bank staff negligence.
To ensure enforcement, the CBN mandates that banks establish 24/7 fraud reporting channels, deploy Early Warning Systems, red-flag suspicious accounts, and conduct regular financial literacy campaigns.
Failure to comply with investigation timelines will attract regulatory sanctions, while customers dissatisfied with a bank’s resolution can escalate matters to the CBN’s Consumer Protection Department.
This framework, open for public comment for three weeks, represents the latest step in the apex bank’s decade-long battle against electronic fraud, aiming to restore trust and security in Nigeria’s rapidly evolving digital financial ecosystem.
