CBN Imposes N1.95bn Sanction on Zenith Bank

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in the 2025 financial year imposed N1.95 billion sanction on Zenith Bank for failing to comply with banking sector’s regulations.

From the audited result and accounts for full year ended December 31, 2025, the lender disclosed that it was sanctioned N1.4 billion relating to non-compliance to CBN policy on intervention facility and N300 million as a result of ATM cash outage.

Other sanctions include: N100million as regarding spot check, N74 million relating to late reporting of cybersecurity issues, N40million relating to foreign exchange utilisation contraventions, N20million as a result of irregular asset acquisition, N5million for failing to comply with branch structure and N97,500 penalty as a result of cash management .

In 2024, the CBN imposed a total fine of N15.42billion on the lender.

The fine in 2024 had stems from the bank’s failure to comply with key banking regulations, including violations related to money laundering, foreign exchange infractions, violations related to risk assessment examinations, cyber security breaches, and other non-compliance issues.

Additionally, concerns were raised about the bank’s failure to meet prescribed standards in maintaining proper controls against money laundering activities.

The bank’s audited financial results for the 2024 financial year revealed that the bank was also fined for late resolution of customers’ complaints and non-compliance with the CBN directive on reconciliation of customer charges.

According to the Audited Financial Results of Zenith Bank, the CBN imposed the highest monetary fine of N14.64billion on the bank for infractions from foreign exchange examination.

Similarly, the bank was penalised for its second heaviest violation when the apex bank slammed it with the sum of N322million for failing to conduct checks on customers’ onboarding documentation.

In addition, it suffered another penalty in the sum of N250million for violation of extant regulations of the CBN.

For failing to conduct anti-money laundering reviews, the CBN further imposed a fine of N103.25million on Zenith Bank in 2024.

The Nigerian government, alongside regulatory bodies like the CBN and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, has in recent times increased efforts to combat money laundering.

The rise of digital banking and mobile payment systems in Nigeria has opened new avenues for money laundering.

However, this has also led to an increased focus on strengthening regulatory oversight of fintech and mobile payment platforms to ensure they adhere to anti-money laundering measures.

Further analysis of the 2024 Audited Financial Statement of Zenith Bank revealed that the bank was fined N2million for late resolution of the customer’s complaint; N14million for non-compliance with the CBN directive on reconciliation of customer charges; N61million was also imposed as a penalty on anti-money laundering findings; and N20million for non-compliance with CBN directives.

Also, a penalty of N4million was imposed on Zenith Bank as a result of an infraction related to the risk assessment examination, while additional N4million was imposed on the bank as a penalty for cybersecurity breaches.