Wema Bank led by Ademole Adebise has been accused by some of its customers of engaging in illicit banking practices in Nigeria, ENigeria Newspaper reports.
The customers said they discovered the bank and its agents had been opening unauthorised accounts for customers using information or data in the bank’s possession.
In order to commemorate its 5th anniversary, the financial institution, run by Ademola Adebise, is accused of establishing accounts for some Nigerians on its digital banking platform, ALAT, without their knowledge or agreement.
Although the exact number of unauthorized accounts registered on behalf of unsuspecting Nigerians is unknown, Wema Bank set a goal of “a million accounts in one day, most of which are now being harnessed by criminals to defraud innocent depositors.”
In a mail obtained by this newspaper, Wema Bank claimed that the unlawful accounts were made for certain people “to rejoice with us,” despite not alerting them or having authority to do so.
This illicit banking practice is comparable to that of Wells Fargo, a US bank that was accused of establishing 1.5 million accounts without authorization and applying for over 565,000 credit cards without the agreement of customers.
For opening the unauthorized accounts, Wells Fargo fired some 5,300 employees, and the business was fined $185 million by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in the United States.
The impacted individuals discovered the unauthorised Wells Fargo accounts when the accounts began accruing debt from bank charges on the unsuspecting victims.
The Ademola Adebise led Wema Bank vendors and marketers may have utilized the same method to meet the lender’s anniversary objective as the dismissed Wells Fargo employees who were accused of fraudulently establishing phony accounts to make the deadline.
Wema Bank’s is likely to impose a financial burden on the unwary through account maintenance costs, from which the lender generated N2.10 million last year, surpassing the N1.24 million forecasted for 2020.
Ademole Adebise led Wema Bank use customers’ data to open fraudulent ALAT accounts
Ademola-Adebise-Wema-Bank-MD/CEO
WEMA ALERT ILLEGAL ACCOUNT AND INSIDER DEALING
Adebayo Tayo, a mental health advocate, recently turned to Twitter to openly accuse Wema Bank of opening an account in his name without his permission.
Tayo bemoaned the fact that he didn’t realize he had a new Wema Bank account until his mother called him after receiving an alert that was meant for him – surprising, given that he owns an account he’s ignorant of and his mother receives the alert.
“I am concerned about how my info had been used by Wema Bank and I need detailed explanations about the account including every transactions it has performed before someone uses my details for an account to launder money or collect ransome, he stated.
Following an investigation into Tayo’s claim, Ripples Nigeria revealed that he was not the only person whose identity had been utilized by the financial institution to register accounts on its digital banking platform, ALAT, without the persons’ knowledge or consent.
Oyenike Ojo, whose name was used to register an account, is another Nigerian who has been affected. When money was sent to the account, however, the alert data revealed another name, Oluseyi Bamgboyi, as the account owner, implying that the account was opened under two separate names.
“What I said is, the present name on the account number in my screenshots is not my wife’s name,” Ojo’s husband said regarding the account. The account was opened with my wife’s name and a new account number, as you can see in the screenshot. She also received a credit alert notification with the new account number through text message.
This demonstrates that her information was used to open the account. However, when I read the news this morning, I tried to make a transfer to that account only to discover that the account name is Oluseyi Bamgboye, not Oyenike Ojo (my wife’s name). “There’s obviously something suspicious going on,” he told Ripples Nigeria.
Ojo says that his wife has a Wema Bank account that she hasn’t used in roughly seven years, and that the new account opened in her name does not appear to have the same number as her old account.
“Customer’s details have been compromised and they are being utilized to register new accounts,” he said, emphasizing that the unauthorised accounts opened are “certainly an inside job.” I’m not sure if it was done by marketers to reach quotas for the number of accounts opened or for money laundering.”
“How Oyenike Ojo’s savings account formed without her permission has now become Oluseyi Bamgboye’s account is clearly problematic,” Ojo said, requesting a probe into the illicit accounts opened by Wema Bank. Ojo expressed his concern by saying.
Abimbola Fakoyejo, another name used to register illegal accounts, revealed that he was still unsure about his dormant ALAT account when he received a message telling him that an account had been opened in his name.
The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) and the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) are yet to respond to enquiry from Ripples Nigeria.
Wema Bank also did not immediately respond to our enquiry on the matter.
The above allegation is coming on the heels of a recent money laundering scandal which the bank was enmeshed in recently among several others in the past involving the its Managing Director Ademola Adebise.
ENIGERIA NEWSPAPER
