Federal High Court in Lagos restricts accounts across 71 financial institutions after funds were allegedly diverted through Access SME App

The Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered Access Bank Plc and 71 other financial institutions to place post-no-debit restrictions on accounts linked to N1.34 billion allegedly diverted from Access Bank customers through its Access SME App.

Also read: Access Bank issues fraud warning to customers

Justice Akintayo Aluko issued the order on Friday, August 14, 2026, following an ex parte application filed by Ifeoma E. Enyinnaya, counsel to Access Bank, after the lender reported the suspected fraud to the court.

According to court documents, Access Bank discovered the incident on August 12 and subsequently found that N1,340,425,393 had been moved without authorisation from customers’ accounts into accounts held with Access Bank and 71 other financial institutions.

The development has triggered a broad recovery effort involving banks, microfinance institutions and payment service providers that allegedly received portions of the money.

Access Bank told the court that the transfers were carried out through its internet banking platform, known as the Access SME App, prompting an internal investigation into how the funds were moved.

The bank sought several interim measures, including restrictions on the affected accounts and bank verification numbers, disclosure of the amounts remaining in beneficiary accounts and the reversal of recovered funds.

Justice Aluko granted three of the four reliefs sought by the bank.

The court directed the affected financial institutions to place post-no-debit restrictions on the identified accounts and BVNs, including any other accounts that received the unauthorised funds, to the extent of the amounts received.

The institutions were also ordered to disclose the sums that remained in the accounts and to watchlist the associated BVNs until the disputed funds are recovered.

However, the judge declined to grant the fourth relief, which sought an immediate reversal of the salvaged funds into an Access Bank account.

The court considered that request akin to a final order and therefore declined to grant it at the interim stage.

The matter was adjourned until August 31, 2026.

The scale of the court action is notable. The respondents include some of Nigeria’s largest commercial banks, alongside microfinance banks, fintech companies and payment service providers.

Among the institutions named are First Bank, Fidelity Bank, FCMB, Ecobank, Guaranty Trust Bank, Keystone Bank, Kuda, Opay, PalmPay, Polaris Bank, Stanbic IBTC, Sterling Bank, Union Bank, United Bank for Africa, Wema Bank and Zenith Bank.

The list also includes Access Bank itself, as well as payment and financial technology companies such as Carbon, FairMoney, Moniepoint, Paga, Smartcash and 9Payment Service Bank.

The order does not establish that the institutions or their customers were involved in the alleged fraud.

Rather, the restrictions are aimed at preserving funds that may have been transferred into accounts linked to the incident while the recovery process and substantive proceedings continue.

Access Bank’s application specifically asked the court to limit recovery to the amounts received by individual beneficiaries.

The case highlights the increasingly complex challenge facing Nigerian banks as digital banking expands and large-value transactions can move rapidly across multiple institutions.

Access Bank’s use of the Access SME App in the alleged incident also underscores the growing importance of controls around digital banking channels, particularly platforms designed to support business customers and high-volume transactions.

The latest case is not the first time Justice Aluko has issued a post-no-debit order in a major financial dispute.

In August 2024, the judge ordered restrictions on accounts across eight banks in connection with an investigation into the alleged fraudulent transfer of about N1.43 billion from a Lebanese firm.

The judge has also presided over other significant financial crime proceedings. In June 2026, Justice Aluko withdrew from a separate $42.48 million Ecobank fraud trial after allegations of misconduct and bias were raised against him.

He rejected the allegations before directing that the case be reassigned.

For Access Bank, the immediate priority is recovering as much of the allegedly diverted N1.34 billion as possible.

The August 31 hearing is expected to provide a further opportunity for the court to consider the status of the restricted accounts and the information supplied by the affected financial institutions.

The case therefore remains at an interim stage.

Also read: Access Bank discharges untreated faecal matter into public drainage system

The court’s latest order preserves the funds that can still be traced, but it does not determine who was responsible for the alleged fraud or finally resolve Access Bank’s claims.