The United Bank for Africa has placed a restriction on the use of its debit and prepaid Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cards.
The commercial Bank on Thursday said its customers can no longer use their cards to purchase some items.
Some of the items listed include; jewellery, pornography, dating, and escort services.
The bank also forbade the use of its cards for all sorts of betting — including buying lottery tickets, casino gaming chips, off-track betting and wagers (bets).
The bank said the overall aim was to enable its customers transact business safely, and to also protects its own business integrity as regard cases of fraud involving its credit/prepaid cards, with the attendant litigation and damage to its reputation.
This information was contained in an email sent to the bank’s customers on Thursday evening.
Routed through its official email address, cfc@ubagroup.com, the mail was entitled, “We want you to transact safely.”
The email in full reads,
We wish to inform all cardholders that we have placed restrictions on the Bank’s debit and prepaid cards from carrying out transactions with merchants that are transacting on the following business categories;
Jewellery
Pornography
Dating and Escort Services
Betting (including lottery tickets, casino gaming chips, off-track betting and wagers)
This has become necessary with the increased need to protect our customers and the institution from fraud, litigation and reputational damages.
Thank you.