As part of efforts to prevent the recycling of workers that had been indicted, terminated or dismissed for fraud and other acts of dishonesty within the banking industry, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has developed a database of employees in the industry.
The Deputy Governor, Financial System Stability, CBN, Mr. Adebayo Adelabu who disclosed this, pointed out that presently, any worker that wish to move from one bank to another will have to be cleared by the central bank in order to ascertain the character of the individual.
Also included in the returns banks send to the CBN, is the list of fraud cases within a particular month and the list of terminated and dismissed members of staff within the month.
According to him, few years back, in the banking industry, there used to be cases of bank workers who were dismissed for fraud cases in one bank and they got employed in another bank, without finding out the reason for leaving their former place of employment.
Also then, when banks send references, their peers are always hesitant to come out with reasons why the worker left their organisation.
This, the deputy governor said became so rampant until CBN came up with a circular that every new employee of banks must be cleared.
“The CBN keeps a data base of this information and when you want to employ and you send the letter to the CBN, it is a matter of seconds to search and we give you feedback,” he added.
Continuing, Adelabu urged banks to always prosecute any member of staff involved in fraudulent activities so as to serve as deterrent to others.
He explained that from personal experience, banks are very reluctant or hesitant in prosecuting fraudsters.
He said: “Those of their staff caught colluding with external fraudsters, what they will do is to ask them to leave the bank without further prosecution. Why the soft landing?
“They talk about reputational risk because they don’t want people to know that their staff are involved in fraud.”
Furthermore, he identified lack of confidence in the existing legal framework in the country as another reason, saying by the time you take a fraudster to court, they keep adjourning the case.
“That is why most banks are uninterested in prosecuting fraud cases in their institution. Most fraudsters are corrupt officers. In 97 per cent of the cases, they steal what they do not need.
“Beyond the basic things of life that we need today, what else do we need? All the money that you steal and keep abroad, you may not even touch them till death comes and the monies go to wrong hands. That is the greatest injustice that anybody can do to himself,” he added.
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