Millions of Nigerians who rely on Verve cards for daily transactions may face payment disruptions following a threat by a coalition of payment processors, acquirers and switches to suspend the acceptance and acquiring of Verve card transactions.
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The coalition, made up of several Central Bank of Nigeria-licensed operators, issued the threat in a letter dated May 28, 2026, addressed to Verve International and Interswitch Limited.
In the letter, the operators accused Verve and Interswitch of multiple regulatory and competition-related breaches, warning that unless urgent undertakings are provided within two days, they would halt the acceptance of Verve card transactions.
The move, if implemented, could affect merchants, businesses, POS operators, fintech platforms and millions of cardholders who use Verve cards for payments across Nigeria.
The coalition acknowledged that the proposed suspension could cause inconvenience to merchants, cardholders and other stakeholders, but argued that the situation was caused by what it described as persistent non-compliance by Verve and Interswitch.
“This action is neither voluntary nor desirable,” the group stated, adding that Verve and Interswitch would bear responsibility for any resulting disruption.
At the centre of the dispute is a Verve policy titled “Transaction Routing Integrity and Prohibition of Network Bypass,” which the coalition claimed reinforces exclusive transaction routing arrangements through Interswitch.
The payment operators alleged that Verve and Interswitch have maintained switching exclusivity arrangements for more than 10 years despite regulatory expectations promoting interoperability and competition within Nigeria’s electronic payment system.
“For over 10 years, you have continued to perpetuate switching exclusivity arrangements between your companies, notwithstanding regulatory expectations to the contrary,” the coalition stated.
The group further accused the companies of abusing a dominant market position and imposing scheme fees that allegedly exceed limits permitted under existing CBN regulations.
According to the processors, other payment and card schemes in Nigeria comply with CBN regulations on scheme fees, but Verve’s restructured acquirer scheme fee introduced on April 1, 2025 allegedly exceeds acquirers’ regulated merchant service charge earnings at all transaction values.
The coalition also alleged that unauthorised deductions were being made from settlement accounts belonging to acquirers, issuers, processors and switches.
It warned that the continued arrangement exposes participating institutions to capital erosion, operational concentration risk and potential regulatory liability.
Among its demands, the coalition asked Verve and Interswitch to immediately withdraw the transaction routing policy and discontinue all forms of routing, switching and processing exclusivity.
The operators also demanded the stoppage of alleged unauthorised deductions, refunds to affected parties and a commitment that transaction processing services would be transparently invoiced rather than deducted directly from settlement accounts.
They further demanded assurances that issuers and acquirers would not be compelled to process or switch Verve transactions through Interswitch.
The coalition argued that global card schemes such as Visa and Mastercard do not impose mandatory routing structures that force transactions through a single operator.
“Should the requested undertakings not be provided within the stipulated timeframe, our companies will, with regret and despite our preference to avoid any interruption to payment services, be compelled to proceed with the planned suspension,” the letter warned.
Verve, which is owned by Interswitch, had yet to issue an official public statement on the matter.
However, a senior Interswitch source defended the company’s position, saying the new rules were introduced to prevent what he described as network bypass and fraudulent transactions that could not be traced.
The source accused some processors of bypassing Interswitch’s network, thereby exposing the scheme to fraud and weakening transaction integrity.
“Now, this has come up again because these guys are now allowing fraud that we can’t trace where it’s coming from, only to discover that these guys have bypassed. Now, bypassing is wrong because you are trying to jeopardize the scheme,” the source said.
According to the source, Interswitch introduced the policy to enforce scheme rules and apply penalties against operators allegedly violating them.
“So, for the first time, we are trying to do something about it and we are telling them, you guys have been violating the rules of the scheme. We cannot continue like this, so we are going to start applying penalties,” the source added.
The source said the matter had already been escalated to the Central Bank of Nigeria, which has summoned all parties to a meeting.
The dispute has renewed attention on competition, interoperability and concentration risks within Nigeria’s fast-growing digital payments industry.
A prolonged standoff could test the resilience of the country’s electronic payment infrastructure at a time when Nigeria is pushing cashless transactions and digital financial inclusion.
While the CBN is already intervening, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission may also come under pressure to step in if the dispute leads to widespread service disruptions.
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