By An alleged N23 billion fraud has rocked the fintech subsidiary of MTN Nigeria, Mobile Money Payment Service Bank Limited.
BlackBox Nigeria had in May reported that the recently launched banking platform suffered a major data breach which resulted to the loss of over N20bn in 24 hours. The firm, however, maintained silence over the development.
In an interesting turn of events, MTN MoMo PSB has dragged 18 commercial banks before a Federal High Court over an alleged N23 billion which was fraudulently transferred in 700,000 transactions into about 8,000 accounts belonging to the customers.
In a suit filed through its lawyer, Lotana Okoli, the fintech urged the court to order the banks to refund the funds and also provide information about the customers into whose accounts the transactions were made.
The firm argued that its demands was in line with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Regulation on Instant (Inter-Bank) Electronic Funds Transfer Services and sections 2(D), 33(1)6) and 47(2) of the CBN Act 2007.
According to its Chief Executive Officer Anthony, Usoro Anthony, in a supporting affidavit, the platform suffered “a system exploitation” on May 24, 2022, during which the fraudulent transactions were processed — forcing the management to shut down the service.
He added that his organisation’s resort to the court was informed by the banks’ insistence that they needed to be ordered by the court before they could act.
