If the advent of technology has made banking financial transactions convenient and seamless, one of the more noticeable of its dark correlates is the rising cases of theft or illegal deductions of consumer funds. With each passing day, not only do Nigerians record cases of illegal deductions from their accounts, cases of inexplicable charges and excessive/hidden fees have assumed frightening dimensions. Unfortunately, it appears that these are not receiving the kind of attention that it truly deserves.

Across the board, the new norm is for the banks topass the buck even when consumers have genuine basis to complain of infractions. Where customers expect prompt action, non-responsive, if not outright irresponsible treatment of genuine complaints has become standard. When the bank customer is not being told to wait indeterminably for long periods for issues requiring urgent attention, they are dismissed off-hand even without the basic duty of looking onto the merit of specific cases. In most cases, bank officials have tended to act as if the services they render are a kind of favour or a social service to the customer.

In almost all cases, the bank customer is deemed the guilty party even before the facts is fully joined.

As one might expect in a situation of unequal power relations, it is, to borrow the Biblical saying, easier for the camel to pass through the eye of the needle than for a hapless bank depositor to get complaints resolved to his satisfaction.

No doubt, it is tempting to blame the current situation on either the absence of, or inadequacy of the applicable rules as it were. But that would be glossing over the express provisions contained in several circulars of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on the matter. Many of the circulars not only outline the procedures for settling complaints but make it mandatory for the banks to render monthly returns on consumer issues that arose, the steps taken to resolve them, including those still pending resolution. In any case, were the applicable regulations to have become inadequate over time as a result of the increasing complexity and dynamism of the sector, the way to go is not to leave the hapless bank customers to the hounds but to review them.

On the other hand, it is not like banks do not have their complaints desks. Rather, it is their unwillingness to put them to work to the satisfaction of their customers that is the main issue. In any case, many of them would rather protect the corporate infractions of their employers than do their duty by the public. As it is, increasing number of Nigerians are more than frustrated that the banks are not only ripping them off their hard-earned savings, but the fact that there is no one to complain to.

The trend is certainly fraught with dangers. First, it certainly undermines the faith of the ordinary citizen in the system, something that does not bode well for the financial services industry in the long run; needless to state that the development strikes at the heart of the quest for a cashless system – rendering it a joke, somewhat. Over all, it conveys an impression of a foot-loose system where any actor could do as he or she pleases.

It is high time the CBN waded into the matter. It has a big role to ensure that the banks comply with the extant rules governing their handling of consumer complaints. An industry-wide standard operating procedure to guide the activities of the banks has become an imperative, even now. It calls for deliberate measures to buoy the confidence of the banking public. The bankers’ professional body – the Chartered Institute of Bankers also has a big role to play here.

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