MTN Nigeria’s banking subsidiary, Momo Payment Service Bank Limited (MPSBL), has filed a law suit against 18 banks seeking refunds from customers of the affected banks. The suit which was filed by the mobile money bank’s lawyer, Lotana Okoli SAN, said that the 700,000 transactions performed were all fraudulent. He further said that, Momo also requested that customer information into whose accounts were funded should be revealed. “Under the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Regulation on Instant (Inter-Bank) Electronic Funds Transfer Services, made pursuant to sections 2(D), 33(1)6) and 47(2) of the CBN Act 2007, it is incumbent on the banks to make refunds and provide the required information.
According to court documents The plaintiff is praying to the court for the following reliefs: a declaration that the deposits of an aggregate sum of N22,300,000,000.00 erroneously transferred by the plaintiff to the accounts of the customers of the defendant banks, having been done in error, belongs to the plaintiff and not the customers of the defendant banks; an order directing the defendant banks to each, individually, account for the sums available in their customers’ accounts and the sums which have been removed by the customers and are no longer available; an order directing the defendant’s banks to immediately return the aggregate sum of N22,300,000,000.00, less those funds that are no longer available, to the plaintiff’s settlement account in the name MOMO PSB settlement account number: 2041379385 at First Bank Plc Samuel Asabia House 35 Marina, Lagos, from where the funds originated; anorder directing the defendant banks to release all information, including account name information in respect of the accounts from which the plaintiff’s funds have been transferred to third parties, including the destination accounts and the banks in which they are held to assist in the tracing and recovery of those funds.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of MPSBL, Anthony Usoro Anthony said in a supporting affidavit that his bank suffered “a system exploitation” on May 24, 2022, during which 700,000 transactions were processed with credits being made into about 8,000 accounts in the 18 banks being requested to make the refunds. “Upon becoming aware of the incident, the service was shut down, to limit the impact and triggered engagements with the defendants (the 18 banks) through the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) for the commencement of recovery activities from the accounts of the various beneficiaries in the various banks. He said. We were able, through system checks, to confirm the banks and accounts into which the various sums of money were transferred into. We were also able to confirm how much was paid into each bank account in total. The said list of accounts that received the funds was made available to the respective banks as a preliminary step to mitigate the applicant’s losses. The transfers were due to the fact that the plaintiff suffered system exploitation which led to the said debits. There is no transaction between the plaintiff and the recipient account holders that warranted the transfer of the funds to that account.”
Anthony said that his organisation’s resort to the court was informed by the bank’s insistence that they needed to be ordered by the court before they could act. The MPSBL CEO stated that the organisation was “carrying out investigations internally and externally to ascertain the actual cause of the debits. The defendant banks have requested an order of court mandating the defendant banks to reverse the credits made into their customers’ accounts before the defendants can do so. The plaintiff is entitled to a return of its money and has demanded the return of the money into its settlement account in the name MOMO PSB settlement account number: 2041379385 held in First Bank Plc, Samuel Asabia House, 35 Marina, Lagos. It is the understanding of the plaintiff that prior to the defendant banks being informed of the fact that the credits into their customer accounts were unauthorised that some withdrawal transactions had already been carried out by some of the customers.
“This has necessitated the application for information regarding these customers and the banks and accounts to which they transferred the said funds in order to enable the plaintiff to trace the funds to those banks. By virtue of the provisions of the CBN Regulation on Instant (Inter-Bank) Electronic Funds Transfer Services, made pursuant to sections 2(D), 33(1)6) And 47(2) of the CBN Act 2007 the plaintiff is entitled to a return of its money and the provision of the information which it requires from the defendants. The plaintiff is also entitled to the support of the defendants in the recovery of any sums which have been removed from the customer accounts in the defendant banks the reliefs it is aiming in this action.”
