Thursday 14th August, 2014/CBN

In order to further strengthen the risk aversion measures put in place for the operations of the NIBSS Instant Payment (NIP) system, and other electronic payments options with similar features, the Central Bank of Nigeria hereby issues the following directives:

1. A categorization of online funds transfer from low security to highly secured transfer, with limits as specified below.

2. Banks are expected to achieve "Highly Secured Funds Transfer" status within six (6) months, i.e. with a deadline of 31st December 2014.

3. Limits of N1million (Instant Value) and N10million (Next day value) shall be applied for NIP and NEFT respectively, and other electronic payments options with similar features, initiated by individuals, with effect from 1st September, 2014. There shall be no limit on the amount that can be received into a customer’s bank account from the platform.

4. For same day value (NIP), the maximum amount that can be transferred by an individual (cumulative) is N5million.

5. A customer shall issue a written indemnity to the bank, where they chooses to initiate transactions above the limits in item 1 above, subject to maximums of N5 million and N100 million for individual and corporate customers respectively.

6. Banks are to establish internal procedures/policies for variants of the N5 million limits. Transactions above the N1 million limit could be delayed by the receiving bank for not more than one (1) hour (as opposed to the current 2 minutes), before applying credit.

7. Limits of N10 million (instant value) and N100 million (next day value) shall be applied for NIP and NEFT, respectively, and other electronic payments options with similar features, initiated by corporates with effect from 1st September 2014.

8. Transfer above N100 million shall be effected through the Real Time Gross-Settlement System (RTGS)

9. Banks are expected to return unapplied funds within 10minutes, where their fraud/risk management systems flag such as suspicious or fraudulent.

10. Banks are also expected to communicate the aforementioned policies to their customers and give adequate notice, before implementation.

11. Banks should encourage customers to pre-register beneficiaries of online transfers.

12. Banks are encouraged to confirm all email transfer requests via accounts officers.