Court Orders 71 Banks to Freeze Accounts Linked to N1.34bn Access Bank Fraud

The Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered 71 banks and financial institutions to place debit restrictions on accounts linked to N1.34 billion allegedly stolen from customers of Access Bank.

Justice Akintayo Aluko issued the order on Friday following an ex parte application filed by Access Bank through its counsel, Ifeoma E. Enyinnaya.

Access Bank told the court that it discovered the fraud on August 12, 2026, after funds were transferred without authorisation from customers’ accounts through its Access SME App.

According to court documents, a total of N1,340,425,393 was transferred to accounts domiciled with Access Bank and 71 other financial institutions.

The court granted three of the four reliefs sought by Access Bank. The affected institutions were ordered to place post no debit restrictions on the identified accounts and BVNs, disclose the amounts recovered in the accounts and watchlist the BVNs linked to the transactions.

However, Justice Aluko declined to grant the fourth relief, which sought an immediate reversal of recovered funds to Access Bank, ruling that such an order would amount to a final determination of the matter.

The court adjourned the case to August 31, 2026, for further proceedings.

The affected institutions include major banks, microfinance banks and fintech companies such as First Bank, GTBank, Fidelity Bank, UBA, Zenith Bank, Access Bank, OPay, PalmPay, Kuda, Moniepoint and others.

Source: The Cable