First Bank of Nigeria has been fined N1.88 billion ($9.4 million) for flouting the directive to transfer deposits of state companies to the central bank, a Bloomberg report said.

“The management of First Bank is still engaging in conversations with the Central Bank of Nigeria on this regulatory decision,” the report quoted Tijjani Borodo, secretary of parent FBN Holdings Plc, as saying in a statement on the Nigerian Stock Exchange’s website. First Bank is Nigeria’s biggest bank by assets.

Shares of FBN Holdings Plc plunged after the central bank fell fell on First Bank, falling by 3.9 percent to 5 naira by 11:55 a.m. in Lagos, its lowest since April 2005.

President Muhammadu Buhari and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Godwin Emefiele gave banks until September 15 to move funds for state-owned bodies to the Treasury Single Account at the central bank in a move designed to clamp down on corruption and financial waste in the public sector. Interbank rates jumped before the deadline as banks sought cash. Fewer than half the deposits had been transferred to the central bank a week later, according to Chibuike Uche, a member of the Monetary Policy Committee.

FBN, which reported a 9.7 percent decline in third-quarter profit this week, is down 38 percent this year, compared with a 16 percent retreat in the country’s main index and a 14 percent drop in the banking industry index.

•Photo shows First Bank GMD Bisi Onasanya.