Fidelity Bank has completely denied the data breach accusations by the Nigerian Data Protection Commission (NDPC). In addition, the bank rejected the ₦555.8 million fine by the NDP, stating that it did no crime and doesn’t deserve the penalty.
According to the bank’s internal investigation, they discovered that the account opening process was incomplete because of a lack of proper documentation. This highlights a lack of evidence of a data breach from the bank.
On May 2nd, 2023, we responded to the NDPC that the bank did not violate any law because there was no data breach and that the account opening process was not completed. On our part, we carried out due diligence by immediately blocking the account and subsequently closing the account when we did not receive the outstanding documents.
Fidelity Bank
The accusation by the NDPC was that the bank had processed a customer’s data without informed consent and heavily relied on non-compliant third-party data processors. Initially, on December 5, 2023, Fidelity Bank received a fine of ₦250 million ($158,894) as a remedial fee, which they challenged, insisting they had violated no laws.
However, on August 20, 2024, the NDPC increased the fine to ₦555.8 million ($353,254), despite ongoing negotiations.