We can’t reverse ATM card ban abroad – CBN

 

The Central Bank of Nigeria has said the decision of Deposit Money Banks to place a restriction on the use of Automated Teller Machine cards abroad by bank customers is due to scarcity of foreign exchange.

The apex bank said while it had no powers to reverse the restriction placed by the DMBs on the use of the ATMs abroad, the CBN was in support of the decision as it would assist in reducing the pressure on the naira.

The Director, Monetary Policy Department, CBN, Mr. Moses Tule, who said these in Abuja while speaking with journalists, explained that the restriction might continue until the country could increase its foreign exchange earnings.

He said if banks had not taken the decision to restrict the use of the ATM cards abroad, some of them would current be experiencing challenges meeting the overseas demand of their customers.

This, he added, would have caused huge liabilities in the balance sheet of the banks, thus affecting their operations.

Tule said much as the CBN sympathised with Nigerians for the sufferings they were experiencing in carrying out transactions abroad, there was little it could do to reverse the decision of the banks.

He said, “The limitation on the use of debit or credit cards outside the country was not a limitation that was placed by the CBN.

“They were restrictions that Deposit Money Banks placed because they have to settle whatever transactions you make with your debit cards with their corresponding banks in foreign currency. And if the banks do not have the foreign currency to do that, then you create a liability problem for them.”