At the end of the third quarter of 2025, nine financial institutions made about N2.81tn from account maintenance charges, commissions on collections, e-business, and other fees.

According to The PUNCH analysis of their unaudited results filed with the Nigerian Exchange Limited, this represents about a 24.10 per cent increase from the N2.27tn earned in the previous year.

The financial institutions include Access Holdings, First HoldCo, Zenith Bank, United Bank for Africa, Guaranty Trust Holding Company, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, Sterling Financial Holding Company, Wema Bank, and Ecobank Transnational Incorporated.

The PUNCH reports that fees and commission income include credit-related fees, which comprise advisory, penal, and commitment fees charged for administration and advisory services to customers up to the point of acceptance of offer letters. Other items under this segment are account maintenance fees (N1 on every N1,000 in respect of all customer-induced debit transactions) and card maintenance fees, charged monthly and valid throughout the card’s period.

Other fees and commission income include commissions on bills and letters of credit, account handling charges, commissions on other financial services, commissions on foreign currency-denominated transactions, channel and other e-business income, and retail account charges.

On the other hand, fees and commission expenses include charges for services provided to customers transacting on the group’s alternate channel platforms. These are charged to the group for services rendered on internet banking, mobile banking, and online purchasing platforms.

During the same period, fees and commission expenses for the financial institutions, excluding Wema Bank, which did not expressly state theirs, rose by 24.38 per cent to N578.53bn from N465.13bn.

A closer look revealed higher growth in fees and commission expenses (24.38 per cent) compared to fees and commission income (24.10 per cent), which can be attributed to rising transaction costs, increased commissions paid, and higher technology/infrastructure spending to support digital channels.

On the fees and commission income side, Access Holdings recorded the highest absolute increase (N198.88bn) and the highest percentage growth at 49.53 per cent, followed by Sterling Financial Holding Company (44.75 per cent) and Stanbic IBTC (41.78 per cent).

Bringing up the rear were UBA (3.85 per cent), Zenith Bank (10.45 per cent), and Wema Bank (11.43 per cent), which reported the lowest year-on-year growth in this non-interest segment.

Straddling the middle lane were First HoldCo, with a 26.86 per cent year-on-year rise to N260.48bn; Ecobank, which recorded a 23.57 per cent rise; and GTCO, which rose by 16.79 per cent to N210.49bn in fees and commission income as of Q3 2025, settling at N758.16bn.

On the fees and commission expense side, Stanbic IBTC reported the highest year-on-year percentage increase of 84.06 per cent to N17.93bn from N9.74bn in 2024. Access Holdings followed with a 73.80 per cent rise to N124.49bn from N71.63bn as of the third quarter of 2024.

Coming a distant third was First HoldCo, with a 37.67 per cent expense hike to N46.78bn.

On a cost-efficiency front, Zenith Bank was notably the only bank to report a decrease in expenses (-0.40 per cent to N96.10bn from N96.49bn), indicating improved cost control in this segment. UBA also managed to keep its fees and commission expenses in single digits at 8.89 per cent, although it was the highest spender on fees and commission expenses at N173.11bn in Q3 2025.

Others, like GTCO, Sterling, and Ecobank, saw their fees and commission expenses rise by 25.80 per cent, 12.83 per cent, and 29.56 per cent, respectively.

Earlier, the President of the Bank Customers Association of Nigeria, Dr Uju Ogubunka, told The PUNCH that the association had written to the Central Bank of Nigeria about excessive bank charges.

He said, “I don’t think any bank can justifiably say, ‘Oh, this is why we are excessively charging our customers.’ There are guidelines already; a guide to bank charges is there.”

He added that although some fintechs were already offering zero transfer charges, commercial banks did not have to follow suit but should operate within the boundaries of the bank charges guideline.

“Even if they don’t want to give us those things free of charge, let them restrict themselves to what the guidelines have said they should charge. If the guidelines say charge me one naira, don’t go and charge me two naira, three naira, or five naira. Restrict yourself to the one naira, if you cannot even lower it yourself, to encourage your customers,” he added.

Meanwhile, in October, the House of Representatives resolved to probe what it described as “arbitrary, excessive, and unexplained” charges drawn from customers’ accounts by money deposit banks operating in the country.

The PUNCH reported that the resolution followed the adoption of a motion of urgent public importance sponsored by Kwara lawmaker Tolani Shagaya at a plenary session presided over by Speaker Tajudeen Abbas.

Titled ‘Need to curb arbitrary bank charges and protect Nigerian customers’, Shagaya drew the attention of his colleagues to the incessant charges levied on Nigerian bank customers despite repeated warnings by the regulator, the Central Bank of Nigeria.