In other to enhance confident in the financial payments system in the country, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the apex regulator has observed that some money deposit banks are revealing their customer’s Bank Verification Number (BVN) without a valid court order
Therefore CBN said before any third party could have access to a customer’ s BVN iot must produced strong prove of evidence of valid court order ”in an amended regulatory framework for Bank Verification Number (BVN) operations and watch-lists for Nigerian financial system”.
The Nigeria’s apex bank stated this in a circular posted on its website yesterday, that was addressed to all banks, switches, mobile money operators, payment solution providers, microfinance banks and others. It stressed that any requests for BVN information must be accompanied with a court order.
The circular titled ‘Amendment to the Regulatory Framework for BVN Operations and Watch-list for the Nigerian Banking Industry,’ takes immediate effect was signed by the Director, Banking and Payments system department, Dipo Fatokun .
In the circular revealed that the amendment, to “Section 1.6 of the Framework, Eligibility for Access to the BVN which states that, ‘The following entities may have access to BVN information, subject to the approval of the CBN,’ is hereby amended to read thus, ‘the following entities may have access to BVN information, after providing a valid Court Order, subject to the approval of the CBN’.
“Consequently, the CBN by this circular hereby informs all stakeholders that the provision of a valid court order is one of the pre-requisites for the release of BVN information to applicants