Lotus Bank
By Abdullahi Abubakar
Lotus Bank Limited has instituted a lawsuit against 45 banks in Nigeria before the Federal High Court in Lagos, in a bid to recover the sum of N1,133,808,604.31 allegedly lost during a system failure on its E-Bills Pay platform.
In its Motion on Notice filed before the court, Lotus Bank stated that the incident occurred on July 20, 2024, following a “rollback fix” carried out on its E-Bills Pay system, which resulted in a “system glitch.”
The malfunction, the bank said, allowed 718 customers to make unauthorised withdrawals and transfers from their accounts even though they did not have sufficient balances.
The bank disclosed that the affected customers exploited the glitch to move funds into accounts domiciled with the 45 banks now joined as defendants in the suit.
The defendants include PalmPay Payment Services Ltd, Moniepoint Microfinance Bank Ltd, OPay Digital Services Ltd, Guaranty Trust Bank Ltd, Access Bank Plc, Zenith Bank Plc, Wema Bank Plc, United Bank for Africa Plc, Kuda Microfinance Bank Ltd, FairMoney Microfinance Bank Ltd, Sterling Bank Ltd, and First Bank of Nigeria Ltd, among others.
Other institutions named are Stellas Digital Bank Ltd, Renmoney MFB Ltd, Unity Bank Plc, FCMB Ltd, Jaiz Bank Plc, Polaris Bank Plc, Keystone Bank Plc, Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc, Fidelity Bank Plc, Providus Bank Ltd, TAJ Bank Ltd, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, Ecobank Nigeria Ltd, Sparkle MFB Ltd, Kredi Money MFB Ltd, Alternative Bank Ltd, Paystack Payments Ltd, and Momo Payment Settlement System.
Lotus Bank’s suit, filed pursuant to Order 3 Rules 1, 6, and 9 of the Federal High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules, 2019, seeks the court’s determination of whether the defendant banks are legally obligated under various Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) guidelines, including Circulars BPS/FIRGEN/CIR/02/004 (2015) and BPS/FIRGEN/CIR/05/011 (2018) to place a lien on the accounts of the customers who received the disputed funds.
The bank also asked the court to determine whether, in line with the same CBN regulations, the defendants are not required to refund all funds illegally transferred into the accounts of their customers and to remit such funds to Lotus Bank where they remain available.
Furthermore, Lotus Bank requested the court to declare that the 45 banks have a statutory duty to safeguard the financial system against fraud and to take immediate action once an abuse is detected.
The bank is also seeking an order compelling the defendants to reverse and refund the total sum of N1,133,808,604.31 to its accounts or any portion thereof that may be recovered, pending full restitution.
The motion was supported by a 19-paragraph affidavit deposed to by Gbenga Ojerinde, a Fraud Investigation Officer at Lotus Bank.
According to the affidavit, the bank experienced a “system glitch” on July 20, 2024, which allowed some customers to execute multiple transfers to other banks and financial institutions without corresponding debits in their accounts.
“The outcome was that certain customers made multiple transfers to accounts held with the defendants in excess of their balances with Lotus Bank,” Ojerinde stated.
He further explained that the incident was promptly reported to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS)—the national clearing system that coordinates interbank settlements across the country.
Ojerinde added that the court’s intervention was necessary to prevent the affected customers from “unjust enrichment” and to enable Lotus Bank to recover the erroneously retained credits.
“It is in the interest of justice, equity, and fairness that the reliefs sought by the plaintiff are granted,” he affirmed.
Some of the defendant banks have already filed responses to the suit.
Justice Daniel Osiagor, adjourned the suit to December 2025 for further hearing.
