*Justice F. N. Ogazi of the Federal High Court, in Lagos, grants GTBank Limited an order to serve the receiving banks, thus paving the way for the refund of N1.9 billion wrongly credited to customer accounts in other banks in the country

Isola Moses | 绿帽献妻

A Federal High Court, Thursday, January 2, 2025, in Lagos, ordered Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) Limited, one of the Nigerian commercial banks, to recover N1.9 billion wrongly credited to customer accounts in other banks in the country between October 28 and 29, 2024.

It was learnt Justice F. N. Ogazi of the Federal High Court Thursday granted the order to GTBank, with a reported market capitalisation of N1.68 trillion, to serve the receiving banks, thus clearing the way for the funds to be returned.

The error occurred when the bank processed duplicate transactions while handling unapplied NIP (NIBSS Instant Payment) inflows, TechCabal report said.

Following the discovery of the said transaction error, the bank began an internal investigation, which revealed that some of the funds had been moved to other banks, according to court filings.

GTBank, therefore, asked the court to place restrictions on accounts that received duplicate funds in the other financial institutions.

It is also noted that the incident coincided with a period of significant disruptions in GTBank鈥檚 services, following its decision to switch its core banking application from Basis to Finacle September 2024.聽 Finacle, developed by Infosys, is said to the most popular banking application in the banking and finance sector in Nigeria.

GTBank鈥檚 leadership visited India as part of the process of deciding on the switch, according to report.

While the switch to Finacle was expected to streamline operations and enhance customer experience, it was fraught with difficulty.

After the bank had announced the completion of the migration October last year, customers began reporting erroneous transaction alerts, and for weeks, the bank鈥檚 banking channels were either unusable or unstable.

GTBank customers as well shared their frustrations over the disruptions, and the bank鈥檚 alleged silence on social media platforms between September and November.

There was, however, done reprieve when the commercial bank issued a public apology over the apparent service disruptions November 2024.

While the court documents do not explicitly tie the duplicate transactions to the migration, technology challenges centering on core banking upgrades were a major theme of 2024, with at least four commercial banks switching or upgrading their software.

The exercise led to weeks of customer service disruptions and a subsequent Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) directive to all banks and Other Financial Institutions (OFIs).

The CBN directed that banks in the country must first receive regulatory approval before commencing such system upgrades to prevent avoidable disruptions in banking transactions and customer service or touch points in the future.

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