GTCO paid N5.9 billion as penalties for infractions in three years

Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO) and its banking subsidiary, Guaranty Trust Bank Limited, paid nearly N6 billion as penalties for contravening regulatory provisions over a period of three years across the various countries in which it operates.

According to the audited financial statements published on its website for the years 2022, 2023, and 2024, the company and the bank incurred penalties of N4.2 billion, N73.9 million, and N1.6 billion, respectively, due to violations of regulatory requirements.

These breaches occurred in several countries, including Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Rwanda, The Gambia, Tanzania, and the United Kingdom, over the three financial years in question.

The figures, described as “contravention” in the financial statements reviewed for this report, refer to payments made by the company and the bank for violating or failing to comply with a law, regulation, rule, or standard that governs banking practices in the countries of their operations.

“As disclosed in Note 45 to the consolidated and separate financial statements, the Company and Guaranty Trust Bank Limited, paid penalties in respect of contraventions of certain sections of the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act 2020 and certain circulars issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria, during the year ended 31 December 2024,” the company said in its latest audited report.

Infractions in 2022

In 2022, Nigeria’s largest lender by market value paid a total of N128.6 million to Nigerian authorities for violations of several regulatory rules.

According to the company’s audited financial report for that year, this amount comprised penalties for various infractions, including N67.3 million for a “CBN Review Infraction,” N20 million for the “2021 Risk Asset Examination,” and N21.25 million for the “2021 Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) Examination.”

Additionally, the bank incurred a penalty of N10 million for both the 2021 CBN Prospective Employee Clearance Review and the 2022 Consumer Protection Review.

The bank was fined N2.8 million by the Ghanaian authorities for “Inaccurate submission of FX End -Day Transaction Return” and N7.7 million for “A review of the bank’s credit portfolio showed that six impaired loans”.

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Meanwhile, the United Kingdom authorities fined GTBank a sweeping N4.1 billion for Deficient AML Control (2014-2017), while Kenyan authorities were paid N7.3 million and N3.9 million respectively for non-compliance with the country’s banking act and central bank’s cash reserve requirement in 2022.

That year, the Tanzanian government fined the bank N180,000 for late rendition of daily liquidity report, while Nigerian authorities also fined the bank N200,000 and N3 million respectively for registering two federal government employees without complete documentation and for violating minimum credit rating requirements.

2023 Contraventions

In 2023, GTCO and its subsidiary paid almost N74 million in infractions to authorities across Nigeria, Rwanda and the Gambia.

In Nigeria, the bank remitted N55 million to regulatory authorities for breaching several regulatory rules. For instance, that year, the bank paid N12 million as a penalty fee in respect of 2020 Risk Assets Examination, N2 million for violating consumer protection, N11 million as penalty for “bank returns rendition” and N30 million as AML/CFT infraction (2021-2022).

In the Gambia, GTCO was fined N919,384 for “late submission of fit and proper person’s test”. Similarly, in Rwanda, the bank was fined N3.9 million and N111,748 for breaching AML reporting and delayed treasury FX transactions report.

That year, the company was also fined N250,000 for resumption of a staff without PenCom’s approval. It also incurred N1.4 million penalties for non-compliance with custody rules for vantage investment note, N9.4 million for underpaying its regulatory fees on vantage investment notes and N1 million for publication of advertisement material without the approval of Security and Exchange Commission(SEC).

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“Vantage Investment Note” is a type of investment note offered through a platform like Vantage Markets, where investors can trade financial instruments, including investment notes.

In 2023, GTCO was also fined N2 million for infraction related to the inadequacy of its minimum paid up capital.

2024 contravention

In its latest audited financial statement for 2024, GTCO said it paid regulatory authorities N1.6 billion for infractions committed within the financial year.

In Nigeria alone, the bank paid N383.6 million to the coffers of regulatory authorities for breaching extant financial regulations and obligations.

GTCO paid N18 million for violation of CBN’s 2023/2024 FX examination, N56 million on consumer protection infractions and N149.3 million as penalty in respect of 2024 compliance related/Bank e-mail returns. In what the bank described as “Penalty paid in respect of 2024 CBN’s Mystery Shopping Exercise”, it paid N160.4 million.

Meanwhile, for breaching foreign exchange market operational guidelines in Ghana, GTCO was fined N1.2 billion last year.

In Rwanda, the bank paid N579,000 each for taking fees which are not allowed by regulators, for submitting erroneous reports to the “Credit Reference Bureau” on bounced cheques and for noncompliance of charged prohibited fees related to financial service consumer protection.

Also, it paid N324,000 to Rwandan authorities for noncompliance with the exchange rate applied by commercial banks.

Charles Eremi of GTCO’s Corporate Communication Unit did not reply to calls and messages sent to him for comments. WhatsApp messages sent to his phone number on Monday indicated delivery but this newspaper received no response from the official as of press time Tuesday afternoon.