The federal high court in Lagos has ordered 71 banks to place debit restrictions on accounts used to warehouse N1.3 billion fraudulently taken from some accounts domiciled in Access Bank.

Akintayo Aluko, the judge, on Friday, gave the order following an ex parte application filed by Ifeoma E. Enyinnaya, counsel to Access Bank

Access Bank said the sum of N1,340,425,393 was moved from customers’ accounts without authorisation to accounts domiciled with the bank and 71 other financial institutions.

In an ex parte application filed on August 13, Access Bank told the court that on August 12, it noticed a fraud incident involving some accounts, adding that the scheme was perpetrated through its internet banking application known as “Access SME App”Upon resumption on 12th August 2026, the Applicant noticed a fraud incident which occurred on some accounts domiciled with the Applicant and was perpetrated through one of the Applicant’s internet banking application known as Access SME App,” Access Bank said in the court documents seen by TheCable.

“It was discovered upon the Applicant’s internal investigation that monies totalling N1,340,425,393.00 (One Billion, Three Hundred and Forty Million, Four Hundred and Twenty-Five Thousand, Three Hundred and Ninety-Three Naira) were moved from its customers’ accounts without authorisation to several accounts domiciled with the Applicant and the 1st to 71st Respondents as listed in Exhibit Access Bank 1.”