The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN); announced a new Anti Money Laundering/Counter Financing Terrorism (AML/CFT) sanction regime. This is in a bid to bring to sanction top officials of banks, such as directors, chief compliance officers and internal auditors, for money laundering and other related acts committed by their respective banks.
Banks and their board members will all be sanctioned for 31 out of the 48 money-laundering infractions listed in the new regime as disclosed by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The new regime was officially communicated yesterday, though it had been released for a week. Already investigations show that banks are already brainstorming ways to tighten their systems to ensure that they comply so as to avoid the punitive sanctions.
Some of the penalties stipulated on the new regime for failure to approve the new policies include; 1million naira on each member of the board and 20million naira on the Deposit Money Banks (DMB).
Failure to sensitize employees by these financial institutes is to attract a minimum penalty of 750,000 Naira on the executive compliance officer, 500,000 Naira on the chief compliance officer and 10million naira on the Deposit Money Banks (DMB).
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