By Ayomide Otitoju
Access Holdings Plc, Nigeria’s largest financial institution by assets, incurred regulatory penalties totaling over N1.21 billion in 2024 for multiple infractions involving the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and other supervisory bodies.
This was disclosed in the company’s audited financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2024, recently filed with the Nigerian Exchange Group.
The penalties, mostly incurred between April and December 2024, covered a range of violations. These include a N300 million fine for the improper warehousing of funds received from a government agency, N157.5 million for anti-money laundering (AML) compliance breaches, N2 million for contravening consumer protection regulations, and N5 million for violations linked to financial sanctions and mystery shopping operations.
The bank also paid N69 million in penalties related to failures in reporting cyber incidents and N100.6 million for unauthorized securities sales. Another N561 million was paid for further breaches of AML provisions.
In contrast, Access Holdings paid only N38 million in regulatory penalties in 2023, reflecting a sharp increase year-on-year.
Despite the regulatory setbacks, Access Holdings reported a strong financial performance in 2024, with gross earnings rising by 88% to N4.878 trillion, up from N2.594 trillion in 2023. Interest income surged by 110% to N3.480 trillion, while non-interest income climbed 47.8% to N1.397 trillion, driven by retail banking expansion, digital transformation, and an agile trading strategy.
