Sterling Bank has explained the reason behind its plan to remove charges on online transfers to any bank.
The April 1, 2025 announcement saw the bank tell its customers that any transfers to any bank would attract zero fees.
Sterling Bank has doubled down on the decision as a genuine effort to ease financial strains on existing customers.
The bankâs managing director and chief executive officer, Abubakar Suleiman, disclosed at a recent briefing that the bank engaged in several consultations over the years about its customers’ pain points and how to ease them.
He said Sterling Bank recognised that as situations became more challenging, small fees paid by customers daily for transactions were a pain point for them.
The Sterling Bank boss said banks are not greedy, but the modern payment systems leverage a tremendous amount of innovative technology, which requires massive investments.
Abubakar revealed that every instant payment requires about eight or nine different software to become successful, saying that most of the software is imported and is required to protect customersâ data and to ensure that the banks can trace transactions.
He said the banks charge to recover the cost of the money used to maintain the software, and that it barely even covers them.
He stated that most of the costs that go through technology are not reflected as technology costs. He said the banks bear the cost of losses that occur during instant payment.
According to him, Sterling Bank has decided to give back some value to its customers after achieving significant improvements in its systems.
He revealed that the bank became the first to build its core banking application using Nigerian engineers and plans to domesticate the technology.Â
He said every time a customer initiates a transfer, there is a switching company that has to be paid.
The bank’s helmsman revealed that every charge the bank eliminates can improve transactions, saying the more people know that it does not cost to conduct transfers, the more they are likely to transact.
He revealed that the policy was for existing customers and customers who will open accounts with the bank in the next few months.
According to him, the bank would decide to extend the service, saying the target was its existing customers.
The bank announced that it would no longer take money for any local online transactions by its customers.Â
The move elicited a debate among industry players, with many saying it was an April Foolsâ Day prank on the banking populace.
Sterling Bank became the first commercial bank to end the practice of charging customers in the guise of online transfers.
TimesNow.com.ng earlier reported that former Aviation minister, Chief Osita Chidoka, was among the Nigerians eager to open a personal account with Sterling Bank, following the bank’s decision to eliminate charges on local electronic transactions.
