Custodian Investment Plc paid a total of N419.13 million in penalties to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other regulators for contraventions recorded in the 2025 financial year, representing a sharp increase from N19.17 million in 2024.
The disclosure was made in the company’s audited financial statements filed on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX).
What the data are saying:
Notes to the financial statements show that the bulk of the penalties, about N391 million, came from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The largest component was a N240 million fine for breaching the intraday liquidity facility (ILF) on a CBN bond trade. The ILF is a short-term funding window that enables financial institutions to settle time-sensitive transactions within the same day, with repayment expected before the closing of business.
Custodian also incurred N76 million for non-compliance with Customer Due Diligence regulations and N75 million for failing to implement internal audit corrections relating to a misclassified high-risk customer.
Beyond these, a series of smaller infractions added to the total penalty:
- N5 million for failure to pay environmental fees (NESREA)
- N1.5 million for the delayed SEC filing on an infrastructure fund
- N10 million for the late submission of FRCN returns
- N9.93 million tied to AML/CFT risk-based supervision issues
- N1.7 million for the delayed filing of financial statements to the NGX
However, the company disclosed that the N240 million ILF-related penalty, linked to transactions carried out on behalf of Sterling Bank Plc, has since been fully recovered from the counterparty, significantly reducing the actual financial impact of the fines.
More insights:
Despite the fines, Custodian Investment still delivered a strong bottom-line performance, with profit before tax rising to N77.35 billion.
The fines represent less than 1% of pre-tax profit on a reported basis. However, adjusting for the recovery of the N240 million linked to third-party transactions, the actual cost impact drops to less than 1% of both management expenses and profit.
The company’s net income of N91.32 billion for 2025 was enough to absorb the management expenses of N21.1 billion, including the fines.
The strong net income was supported by strong top-line performance, driven by growth in investment income, fair value gains on financial assets, and growth in interest income.
The group also benefited from a turnaround in its insurance service result, which moved from a loss position in the prior year to a profit in 2025.
