CBN, BoG sanction GTBank, fine lender N1.7bn for infractions

Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank), a subsidiary of Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO) has been hit with a total fine of N1.7bn for foreign exchange (FX) violations and consumer protection breaches.

The penalty according to its financial statement for 2024 covers the company’s operations across Nigeria, Ghana, Gambia, and Rwanda.

GTCO was fined a total of N1,652,293,000 based on its financial statement for Q5 2024.

The largest portion of this fine came from Ghana, where GTBank Ghana paid N1.26bn for breaching operational guidelines in the foreign exchange market.

Over the past two years, the Bank of Ghana has been increasingly stringent with forex market players, including banks, forex bureaus, brokers, and money transfer operators (MTOs). In 2023, the central bank issued strong warnings for strict compliance with forex regulations. Notably, in June 2023, the Bank of Ghana suspended the forex licenses of Fidelity Bank Ghana and First National Bank Ghana for similar violations.

However, GTCO’s issues were not limited to Ghana. In Nigeria, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) imposed a series of penalties, totaling N383.65m for various infractions. These included a N160m fine related to the CBN’s 2024 Mystery Shopping Exercise, N149.25m for compliance-related penalties, N56m for violations of consumer protection regulations, and N18m for a penalty arising from the 2023/2024 CBN FX Examination.

In Gambia, the Central Bank fined GTCO’s subsidiary, GTBank Gambia, N4.72m for missing a workshop on Risk-Based Supervision.

Furthermore, GTBank Gambia was fined N579,000 for non-compliance with regulations concerning unauthorized fees and the application of exchange rates by commercial banks. Additional fines totaling N1.48m were levied for submitting erroneous reports to the Credit Reference Bureau and for charging prohibited fees.

Finally, in Rwanda, GTCO faced a fine of N2.1m for four separate regulatory breaches.

These fines underscore the growing scrutiny financial institutions are under, especially in the area of foreign exchange operations, as regulators across multiple African countries enforce stricter compliance measures.