Banks used for money laundering may be blacklisted - CBN

Banks which allow themselves to be used for money laundering run the risk of being blacklisted by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.

The apex bank's Deputy Governor in charge of Financial System Surveillance (FSS) , Mr. Okechukwu Joseph Nnanna said this in Abuja on Tuesday at
a workshop organised by the Inter-Governmental Action Group Against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA) .

“Any bank which we discover has been used, or manipulated by criminals who launder money, corrupt politicians who launder money, that bank and directors would be held accountable.

“Not only paying fines, we can also ask them to be blacklisted and will never work in the financial system any more. That is a very severe punishment.

“People who finance terrorists come in different guises; they may be genuine businessmen who after a while may turn to be criminals but what is important is for the banks to make sure that the customer who comes to deposit money and withdraw money, they must know who he is. Not only knowing who he is, they must know his or her business.

“At the CBN, we are doing a great deal. The bank has in fact put in place a regime of controls particularly for commercial banks. Know Your Customers (KYC) is a very serious affair with us.

“ You don’t go to the bank and open an account and go and lodge in N5 million, N10 million without you being reported to the NFIU and to the EFCC. You will be reported to explain the source of that money.

“We are not saying that Nigerians are all criminals. If you are a genuine businessman and you lodge in N1 billion there is nothing wrong with that but if you have N5000 and all of a sudden, you brought N10 million, we would like to know.

“The CBN in collaboration with the National Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) would like to know the source of that money and that we are doing very religiously,” he said.