The Central Bank of Nigeria has directed banks to ensure to resolve
all Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cardholders’ complaints
within a maximum of 72 hours from the date of receipt the
complaints or face sanctions. This is contained in a new set of rules to
guide transactions, going forward.
Where records are falsified by any party, the CBN warns that adequate
sanctions shall apply.
In an exposure draft on the standards and guidelines on electronic
channels operations in Nigeria, signed Dipo Fatokun, its Director
Banking and Payments System Department, the CBN also directed banks
or independent organizations that deploy ATM for the use of the public
to ensure that the ATM vault replenishment must be carried out as often
as possible to avoid cash-out.
They are also to ensure that ATMs are not stocked with unfit notes and
that cash is available in the machines at all time.
The CBN also warned that the ATM downtime (due to technical fault)
must not be more than seventy-two (72) hours consecutively.
It added however, that where this is not practicable, customers shall be
duly informed by the deployer.
They are also to ensure that the helpdesk contacts are adequately
displayed at the ATM terminals.
It warned that at the minimum, a telephone line should be dedicated for
fault reporting and such telephone line shall be functional and manned at
all times that the ATM is operational.
Also, all ATM charges must be fully disclosed to customers, the CBN
insists in the new rules.
The apex bank said that there must be appropriate monitoring
mechanism to determine failure to dispense cash; and that there is online
monitoring mechanism to determine ATM vault cash levels.
“Penalties Sanctions, in the form of monetary penalties / or suspension
of the acquiring/processing service (s) or both, would be imposed on
erring institutions for failure to comply with any of the provisions of the
ATM standards and guidelines or any other relevant guidelines issued by
the CBN from time to time,” the apex bank warned.
The funding and operation of the ATM deployed by non-bank institutions
should be the sole responsibility of the bank or institutions that entered
into agreement with them for cash provisioning and in this regard, the
Service Level Agreement (SLA) should specify the responsibilities of
each of the parties.
The CBN rules noted that Change of PIN must be provided to customers
free of charge throughout the entire value chain, while acquirers monitor
suspicious transactions and report statistics to CBN based on the agreed
format and timeframe.
Back-up power (inverter) is made available at all ATM locations in such
a way that the machine would not cease operation while in the middle of
a transaction, the CBN said, adding that Waste disposal basket must be
provided at all ATM locations.
A register of all their ATMs in Nigeria with location, identification,
serial number of the machines, etc must also be maintained, going
forward.
For security reasons, every ATM is required to have cameras which
would view and record all ATM Security. “However, such cameras
should not be able to record the key strokes of customers using the
ATM,” the CBN further noted in the statement pasted on its website.
The CBN now requires any institution which operates an ATM to file an
updated list of such machines, including the detail location of their
addresses with its Banking & Payments System Department for
compliance monitoring.
The CBN also disclosed that it will conduct onsite snap checking of
ATMs with a view to ensuring compliance with cash and service
availability at the ATMs, as it directed acquirers to report volume and
value of transactions on monthly basis to its Director, Banking &
Payments System Department.