[Opinion] Banks ATMs And Our Money

by Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi
The other day, a rumpus ensued in a banking hall where a customer
accused the bank in question of deliberate attempt to defraud him.
What was behind this allegation? He used the bank’s Automated Teller
Machine(ATM) to recharge his phone with N2,400 worth of airtime, but
there was nary an airtime on his phone yet the amount was deducted
from his balance.

The aggrieved customer said he had complained repeatedly to the bank
for which they always gave him a complaint form to fill that he
dutifully filled yet the sham wasn’t rectified. This, he maintained,
has lasted for five weeks hence his resolve to come hard on the bank.
Don’t lose focus, what you are expected to glean from that is the
failure of ATMs!

Cases like the above must have necessitated the investigation launched
by the House of Representatives and the Consumer Protection Council
(CPC) into allegations of indiscriminate seizure of customers’ money
by the malfunctioning Automated Teller Machines of banks.

But it doesn’t stop at the seizure of customers’ money. What have
become of ATMs and what has been made of that machine are
multifarious.

There was this instance in Lagos where a customer who withdrew money
from an old generation bank went to another bank few metres away to
deposit part of the money only to be told by the cashier that some of
the N1000 notes were fake. Efforts to explain the source of the money
were rebuffed as the cashier and other customers in that bank
confirmed that the development was not strange but was now becoming
rampant.

Similarly, another victim who withdrew some amount of money from an
ATM in Ibadan was stunned when he was told by a cashier in his office,
as he was making some deposit, that two of the one thousand naira
notes were fake.

Electronic transactions through ATMs have been bedeviled by other
inefficiencies that are impinging on its wide adoption and
reliability. There are times when the machine will swallow customers’
card outright while at other times it will keep customers longer than
should be before their money and cards are ejected.

Many are already developing phobia for the machines to the extent that
but for the policy that specifies the least amount that should be paid
across the counter, they wouldn’t mind opting for the old school! At
least, through that means the fear of being giving ersatz note
wouldn’t surface.

Suppositions are rife that the seizure of customers’ funds in the
guise of malfunctioning ATMs are calculated attempts by banks aimed at
using unsuspecting customers’ money to ease the financial pressure on
them.

This is as an elephantine sum would have been realised by the banks
when they aggregate the funds realised from the purported incidences.
We will indeed be talking about millions of naira being deliberately
denied customers while the banks are feeding fat on same.

Is it a wonder that it was confirmed by the Central Bank of
Nigeria(CBN) that as at the first quarter of this year, banks in
Nigeria have defrauded unsuspecting customers to the tune of N8.6bn
aside the fraud perpetrated through ATMs. Now we know how they come
through with those high profit they flaunt before us year in, year
out.

Industry players are always quick to attribute this anomaly to their
ATMs not being in good condition. But how can they be in good
condition when most of them have become antiquated? And how come with
all the money the banks are ripping of customers they can’t provide
modern machines that are flawless?

All these reeks of an intended gambit.

Internet failure has also been addused as why the current situation
persists. But with the innovations that go with the internet
phenomenon, no serious-minded organisation would in this age allow
internet failure to hamper its operations or give it a negative toga.
If we don’t hear of this in other climes, why should our banks tell us
this tale?

The banks that seem so handicapped as regards ATMs withholding
customers’ funds will never tolerate a customer’s default on the
repayment of loan even for a day without sanction from the bank. In
such instance, we don’t even hear of internet failure affecting what
they know of the loan.

The probe already instituted by the lawmakers and CPC is a welcome
development as the banks would continue to indulge in this if no
searchlight is beamed on them. The racket must have persisted because
there has been no sanction to make banks responsible by ensuring that
their ATMs are always in good condition and that they don’t hide under
the lapses of electronic transactions to undo customers.

The investigations should therefore be thorough not excluding the
cases of the machines dispensing fake currency note. This cannot be
attributed to the failure of ATMs as it is a clear case of human
element. As such the scrutiny should be targeted at unearthing these
unwholesome acts.

It shouldn’t end with the investigations, neither should the probe be
conceived as another scarecrow. The banks that would be revealed as
culpable should be appropriately sanctioned. At least let a fall guy
be made out of one of them then the rest will fall in line.

The banking industry should take measures to rid itself of this smirch
that is denting on its image. There is the need for them to take extra
vigilance on those uploading money into the ATMs and double-check
bundle of currency notes being put in the vaults. If they can’t get a
handle on the supposed machine factor, let them not less than control
the human element.

With the much puffed cashless policy of the CBN, we are in for a
chimera if we allow this to continue. For there is no way the economy
can go cashless when people don’t have confidence on the conduit
through which this can be achieved and the apparatus for the policy
are skewed to defraud users.

But if we are carefree enough to allow these go unchecked, then should
we know that we would only have succeeded in making people have less
of their cash in the stead of empowering them to make the most of a
cashless economy.

Ugochukwu writes from Lokoja, you can follow me on twitter via @ugsylvester