Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO) and its banking subsidiary, Guaranty Trust Bank Limited, paid ₦1.6 billion in penalties for regulatory contraventions across their markets in 2024, up from ₦73.9 million in 2023, according to the group's audited 2024 financial statements, released on 28 March 2025.
The largest single item was a ₦1.2 billion penalty in Ghana for breaching foreign exchange market operational guidelines. Penalties paid in Nigeria totalled ₦383.6 million.
NIGERIAN PENALTIES
The Nigerian items comprised ₦160.4 million paid in respect of the Central Bank of Nigeria's (CBN) 2024 Mystery Shopping Exercise, ₦149.3 million relating to 2024 compliance and bank e-mail returns, ₦56 million for consumer protection infractions and ₦18 million for violations identified in the CBN's 2023/2024 foreign exchange examination. Smaller penalties were also recorded in Rwanda, including ₦579,000 for each of three separate infractions and ₦324,000 for non-compliance related to exchange rates.
The independent auditor's report on the 2024 accounts stated that the company and Guaranty Trust Bank Limited had “paid penalties in respect of contraventions of certain sections of the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act 2020 and certain circulars issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria, during the year ended 31 December 2024”.
THREE-YEAR TOTAL
Over the three years from 2022 to 2024, the group's penalties totalled about ₦5.9 billion. The 2022 figure of ₦4.2 billion was dominated by a ₦4.1 billion penalty in the United Kingdom for deficient anti-money laundering controls covering 2014 to 2017. The 2023 penalties were paid in Nigeria, Rwanda and The Gambia, with ₦55 million of that year's total remitted to Nigerian authorities. Over the period, penalties were recorded in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Rwanda, The Gambia, Tanzania and the United Kingdom.
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