The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), said at the weekend, that the fight against financial crimes will be successful, if the existing 25 banks collaborate with relevant authorities.
Speaking at a one-day Anti-Corruption and Transparency Sensitisation Workshop, organised by Governor’s Office of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), at the weekend in Abuja, Director, Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), of the EFCC, Mr Asishana Okauru, said it will be difficult to achieve significant success in anti-financial crimes war, if existing inter-bank relationship was not strengthened, in addition to cooperation with all regulatory and law enforcement authorities in all cases relating to financial crimes.
According to him, “financial crimes have devastating effects not only on the financial system but on the general economic and political facets of every country. To effectively address the menace of financial crimes and engender development, banks and all stakeholders must collaborate, and make concerted efforts aimed at fighting these crimes.”
Okauru said “financial crimes in particular, are among the largest challenges facing business and financial institutions worldwide today. Though it may be difficult to quantify how much is lost to financial crimes globally, it is generally believed that losses are growing steadily, while annual losses are estimated at billions of dollars.”
He said“besides taking advantage of technology, weak controls in the financial system and minimal enforcement activity for financial crimes allow criminals to take advantage of the global financial system. The collaborative effort of criminals is also another critical factor that contributes to their success. Networking or alliances among financial criminals help to facilitate perpetration of financial crimes globally.”
He listed the hallmarks of financial crimes to include “conspiracy, deception and concealment, which make financial crimes sophisticated, hard to detect and complex (hard to prosecute and convict).
The goal of financial criminals, he added, was usually to achieve personal financial gain.
While stating that financial crimes increase the profitability of crime, damage critical financial sector institutions and scare foreign investors, Okauru said banks were usually involved in financial crimes either as victims, as perpetrators or as instruments.
Given this scenario, therefore, the NFIU director challenged banks “to put in place appropriate measures to close all loopholes which financial criminals have taken advantage of.
“Also, to counter financial crimes, operators in the banking sector must engage in partnership or strategic alliances with regulatory and law enforcement agencies for effective result.”
“Besides the aforementioned,banks should strengthen internal controls; do a comprehensive identification of customers properly before opening their accounts, using the Know Your Customer (KYC) principle; deploy anti-crime IT solutions and institute proper systems of checks in their operations.”
Special Adviser to the CBN Governor, Mr Pah Ataman, said disclosed that CBN has an anti-corruption unit, which according to him, is a virtual office. The Unit, he said, received and investigated complaints of corruption and abuse of office against staff from stakeholders and where necessary measures are taken against such persons. He said members of the Unit are drawn from different departments of the banking watchdog and operate in secret.
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