The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said that it placed over 6,000 bank verification numbers (BVN) of customers under watchlist for transactions linked to fraud in the first quarter (Q1) of 2022.
The apex bank made this known in its recently-released financial stability June 2022 report.
According to the report, the number of watchlisted BVNs for fraudulent activities rose by 13.09 percent to 6,047 BVNs, from 5,347 in the last quarter of 2021.
It also noted that 11,871 BVNs were watch-listed as deceased persons in the review period.
The report said the CBN conducted an assessment of 28 banks and the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System (NISS) to ascertain compliance with the regulatory framework for BVN operations and watchlist for the Nigerian banking industry.
It added that the assessment revealed some infractions and regulatory actions were taken.
Meanwhile, 2.72 million BVNs were enrolled in the first half of this year, the report said, bringing the total number of enrolled BVNs to 54.65 million