The Central Bank of Nigeria has introduced new compliance rules that will require banks, fintech companies and other financial institutions in Nigeria to deploy automated anti money laundering systems to monitor transactions and detect suspicious financial activities.
According to the apex bank, the move is aimed at strengthening Nigeria’s ability to detect and prevent money laundering, terrorism financing and proliferation financing within the financial system.
Under the new guideline, deposit money banks will have 18 months to fully implement the
automated systems.Other financial institutions such as fintech companies, mobile money operators and payment service providers have been given 24 months to comply.
The directive means financial institutions will need to begin transitioning from mostly manual monitoring processes to technology driven systems capable of tracking financial transactions in real time.
The Central Bank also instructed all affected institutions to submit detailed implementation plans within three months to its Compliance Department explaining how they intend to deploy the automated systems.
These automated AML platforms typically rely on advanced analytics, transaction monitoring tools and artificial intelligence to scan large volumes of financial transactions and flag unusual patterns that may indicate financial crime.
Regulators believe the new framework will significantly improve the speed, efficiency and accuracy of detecting suspicious activities across Nigeria’s financial sector.
Nigeria’s banking and fintech ecosystem has grown rapidly over the past decade, handling massive volumes of digital transactions daily. Regulators say adopting automated monitoring systems is necessary to keep up with the scale and complexity of modern financial activities.
The Central Bank also stated that it will continue monitoring the financial system and may release additional guidelines where necessary to ensure effective implementation.
Source:
https://businessday.ng/news/article/banks-fintechs-face-new-cbn-deadline-for-automated-aml-systems/
What do you think about this new directive?
Will automated monitoring help reduce financial crimes in Nigeria or will it simply increase operational costs for banks and fintech companies?
Nairalanders, let’s discuss
Comments
Post a Comment