Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc (GTCO), through its flagship banking subsidiary, Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank), has doubled the international spending limit on its Naira-denominated debit cards to $40,000 per quarter, from the previous ceiling of $20,000.

The upward review, communicated to retail and corporate customers in a notice, allows cardholders to make higher-value cross-border payments directly from Naira-funded accounts.

The expanded limit covers international airline bookings, hotel accommodation, payments through overseas merchant point-of-sale (POS) terminals and foreign tuition fees, among other eligible transactions.

The development signals improving foreign exchange (FX) liquidity in the banking system and growing confidence among banks in their capacity to meet customers’ legitimate international payment needs.

The review also comes against the backdrop of increased FX inflows from foreign portfolio investments, non-oil export proceeds and other autonomous sources of foreign currency.

Unlike previous periods when international card spending limits were heavily influenced by broad-based regulatory restrictions, banks now have greater discretion to determine card limits based on their individual foreign currency liquidity positions, risk management frameworks and operational capacity.

The increase by GTBank is therefore viewed as part of a broader normalisation of access to FX for retail and corporate customers, following significant reforms in Nigeria’s FX market.

Higher card limits could also reduce pressure on the parallel market by enabling customers to meet legitimate overseas obligations through formal banking channels.

Travellers, students, businesses paying for international services and subscribers to foreign-based digital platforms could have less need to source foreign currency through informal or non-bank channels.

The expanded threshold is expected to apply primarily to online transactions and international merchant POS terminals, while cash withdrawals through automated teller machines (ATMs) remain subject to separate limits designed to minimise arbitrage and other forms of leakage.

Meanwhile, the latest move comes at a time when GTCO is seeking to strengthen alternative revenue streams amid pressure on its bottom line.

The financial institution reported a 15.4 percent decline in profit after tax (PAT) in the first quarter of 2026, despite recording double-digit growth in net interest income.

The weaker bottom-line performance was attributed largely to a 100 percent increase in tax expenses and a significant negative swing in the fair-value performance of financial instruments.

GTCO has also maintained a relatively conservative lending strategy compared with other major Nigerian banks.

In the first quarter, only about 16.9 percent of its assets were deployed as loans, reflecting its continued emphasis on treasury investments, transaction banking and electronic banking fees as relatively efficient sources of income.

The expansion of its international card spending limit could therefore provide additional opportunities for GTBank to deepen transaction volumes and fee-based income, while strengthening its position in the increasingly competitive digital payments and cross-border banking market.

For customers, the higher ceiling represents greater flexibility in settling legitimate international obligations from Naira accounts without having to rely as heavily on separate foreign currency funding arrangements. (Nigerian Tribune)

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