The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has advised bank customers to be cautious about the use of fake SWIFT messages during foreign exchange (FX) remittances.

SWIFT messages are sent through the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication network to facilitate financial transactions between banks and financial institutions.

The CBN gave the warning in a statement signed by Hakama Sidi-Ali, its acting director of corporate communications department, on Tuesday in Abuja.

The apex bank said it had been inundated with claims by some stakeholders about the conclusion of foreign currency transfer to their Nigeria bank accounts.

According to Sidi Ali, stakeholders like private entities, individuals, law firms, and government agencies complained that foreign currency funds allegedly transferred to them by foreign entities have yet to be credited to their accounts with Nigerian banks.

“In some instances, the claimants alleged that the funds were withheld by either the beneficiary bank in Nigeria or the CBN and requested assistance towards releasing the funds to them,” She said.

“The requests are usually supported with fake documents such as SWIFT MT103, SWIFT Ack copy, etc.

“It has become imperative to state that the SWIFT ack copy and SWIFT MT103 that these claimants usually attach as evidence of remittance to beneficiary banks in Nigeria are not reliable.”

Sidi Ali added that the SWIFT messages are always not traceable on the SWIFT platform and the funds are not received to enable their application to the beneficiary’s account.

“In a situation where a fund transfer beneficiary receiving bank claims non-receipt of funds remitted by the foreign entity, the standard practice is for the sending customer to contact the sending bank.

“The purpose for the sending bank to send a tracer to trace where the fund is hanging and recall it.

“For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to state emphatically that the CBN neither provides correspondent banking services for Nigerian banks in foreign payments nor maintains accounts for private business entities.

“Consequently, petitioners’ claim that the alleged expected inflows for onward credit into the accounts of private business entities are trapped in the CBN is not only spurious but deceitful.” 

The CBN spokesperson urged the general public to be careful with such unauthentic SWIFT messages and documents containing spurious claims of non-application of substantial foreign currency funds allegedly transferred into the beneficiary’s account.

She also warned that the CBN would not hesitate to report any bank customer making unsubstantiated and illegitimate claims to law enforcement agencies for investigation and prosecution.

The Cable