Banks restricts ATM cash withdrawal overseas
News & Trends •
read more18 nigerian banks have restricted cash withdrawals from overseas automated teller machines atm only to those whose cards are linked to their domiciliary accounts funded locally1 according to the lenders are also raising their card spending limits on point of sale pos and online card transactions abroad an indication of increased dollar liquidity and rising exchange rate stability1 guaranty trust bank gtbank and first city monument bank fcmb it said at the weekend raised their monthly card spending limit on overseas pos and online transactions from 1000 to 3000 and around 2000 to 50001 we would like to inform you that our monthly spending limit on your gtbank naira mastercard has been reviewed to 3000 from 1000 for your international online and pos transactions. kindly note that international atm cash withdrawal is still restricted gtbank said1 clothing shoes electronics bookswhatever your needs are fcmb naira debit card gives you instant full access to 5000 monthly to shop online fcmb said in an email sent to its customers at the weekend1 gt bank had nearly two years ago during the height of the dollar scarcity limited monthly transactions on pos and online transactions using cards to 100 british pounds sterling 90 euro 130 and canadian dollar 360. the prevailing dollar scarcity at that time made it difficult for travellers to pay their hotel bills and make reservations and other transactions using their debit cards1 many banks which announced the suspension of their overseas atm card services in october 2016 have all lifted the suspension and raised monthly transaction volumes for customers on foreign currency-denominated deals including those conducted on pos machines and online1 the dynamics changed in april last year when the central bank of nigeria cbn introduced the investors1 the banks have therefore suspended such withdrawals and encouraging travellers to open and fund dollar accounts1 for instance in the first half of 2018 transactions in the i1 according to an afrinvest report titled nigerian economy and financial market h12018 review released at the weekend the investment and research firm said nigerias economic recovery path had been reinforced by the sustained stability in oil prices with four consecutive quarters since second quarter of 2017 of positive slow but steady growth1 it however said economic activities slowed in the first half of this year given the delayed passage and implementation of the 2018 budget of consolidation a major limiting factor in the drive towards implementing the federal governments economic recovery and growth plan ergp the fiscal paper drafted to address some of the deep-rooted structural imbalances in the economy1 in addition food supply disruptions resulting from the current security crises which in turn fuelled inflationary pressures coupled with tighter monetary stance of the cbn towards stabilising the currency market contributed to the slow growth rate reported. nonetheless the domestic macroeconomic performance has been largely satisfactory on the back of persistent disinflation rising oil prices and external reserves increased foreign exchange liquidity with frequency of interventions improved to1 it said the rise in oil prices impacted positively on nigerias foreign reserves rising 22.7 per cent to 47.6 billion on june 13 2018 from 38.8 billion on december 29 20171 consequently the cbn maintained its exchange rate peg with the naira appreciating to n305.801 june 2018 from n3061 december 2017 in the official window while the stability and liquidity in the foreign exchange market improved as seen in the growing confidence by investors in the i1 the forex window has largely removed the pressures from the parallel market rate which now sometimes trades at a discount to the nigerian autonomous foreign exchange nafex rate1 financial analysts at afrinvest west africa said stability in the forex market followed the increased volume of forex interventions and the coming of i1