Nigeria’s apex bank, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has set out guidelines on the minimum standards expected from financial institutions on consumer protection disclosure and transparency.
The regulator disclosed this in its consumer protection framework and guidelines on ‘Disclosure and transparency’.
It stated that the objective of the guidelines was to protect consumers against the provision of inadequate, misleading or failure to disclose material and relevant information and generally guide against lack of transparency by financial institutions in their dealings with consumers.
The CBN also stated that failure to comply with the provisions of the guidelines would attract regulatory sanctions provided for by the CBN Act, the banks and other financial institutions as well as other laws and regulations.
The guidelines provided minimum disclosure and transparency requirements for financial institutions under the regulatory purview of the CBN.
This, it said, was to ensure they provided consumers with all material and relevant information regarding their business relationship in a clear and transparent manner.
To promote transparency and enhance disclosure, the CBN stated that the financial institutions must comply with its provisions.
The CBN said the regulated institutions must comply with the rates, charges, fees or prices published or disclosed at their engagement points.
It added that the institutions must agree with consumers on the communication channels to be used for all correspondences and include the channel in all contract documents.
Part of the guidelines said contracts, offer letters, statements of account, notices and other documents provided or made available to consumers must be written in clear, legible and simple English language and in a minimum font size of 10.
(Punch)
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