Access Holdings has been fined N557 million by CBN over FX Breaches and ‘Fictitious’ Forwards.
NewsOnline Nigeria reports that Access Holdings Plc has disclosed that its banking subsidiary, Access Bank, paid N557 million in 12 separate penalties imposed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) during the first half of 2026 over regulatory breaches, largely involving foreign-exchange transactions and reporting.
According to the group’s unaudited financial statements for the six months ended June 2026, most of the penalties followed CBN findings that the bank submitted net open position returns containing what the regulator described as “fictitious forward transactions”.
The total penalties represent a 29 per cent increase from the N432 million disclosed by Access Bank for the corresponding period of 2025.
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The fines amounted to approximately 0.2 per cent of Access Holdings’ profit after tax of N266.72 billion recorded in the first half of 2026.
What the CBN Found
Ten of the 12 penalties resulted from two CBN foreign-exchange examinations covering April 2023 to March 2024 and April 2024 to March 2025.
The penalties from the two examinations amounted to N369 million, representing about 66 per cent of the total fines paid during the period.
The largest single penalty was N167.96 million, imposed over the late remittance of recovered funds under a CBN intervention facility granted to Max Air.
CBN Flags ‘Fictitious’ Forward Transactions
Some of the regulator’s most significant findings involved the bank’s foreign-exchange reporting and the booking of forward transactions without eligible underlying deals.
The CBN fined Access Bank N25 million for booking forward foreign-exchange purchases and sales without eligible underlying transactions.
The regulator subsequently imposed two separate N50 million penalties because the transactions were also reflected in the bank’s foreign currency trading position (FCTP) and net open position (NOP) returns.
The financial statements described the NOP forward transactions as “fictitious”.
The net open position is a key regulatory measure used by the CBN to monitor and limit banks’ exposure to foreign-exchange risk.
Including forward transactions without eligible underlying trades in regulatory returns could make a bank’s currency exposure appear lower or more hedged than it actually is.
The breaches were cited under the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020.
According to calculations cited by MoneyCentral, the three forward-related penalties, together with a fine for late submission of the foreign-exchange general ledger, amounted to N153 million, representing about 27 per cent of the total half-year penalties.
N167.96 Million Fine Linked to Max Air Intervention Facility
The largest penalty involved the late remittance of recovered funds under the Real Sector Support Facility funded through the Differentiated Cash Reserve Requirement (RSSF-DCRR).
Under the CBN intervention scheme, banks provide loans to businesses in the real sector using funds made available by the regulator and are required to remit recovered loan proceeds to the CBN.
Max Air, a Kano-based airline, was the beneficiary linked to the N167.96 million penalty.
The airline suspended domestic flight operations for three months from January 31, 2025, following a nose-gear collapse in Kano. The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority subsequently cleared it to resume operations on March 17, 2025.
CBN Penalties Cover Earlier Regulatory Breaches
The financial statements show that all 12 penalties were imposed between February and June 2026, although the conduct under examination dated as far back as April 2023.
The timeline suggests that the CBN is continuing to process findings from earlier regulatory examinations, leaving open the possibility of additional penalties relating to previous periods.
The disclosures highlight the regulatory risks facing financial institutions, particularly around foreign-exchange reporting, compliance with intervention-fund requirements and the accuracy of information submitted to the central bank.
