CBN: We’re working to identify leakages, tighten surveillance on fintechs

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says it is working to identify leakages and tighten surveillance on financial technology (fintechs) companies.

Olayemi Cardoso, CBN’s governor, spoke on Tuesday during the press briefing of the 295th monetary policy committee (MPC) meeting in Abuja.

The governor said fintechs have made positive impact both in Nigeria and the world but regulation is crucial to prevent illicit financial flows within the system.

He said the bank is working with law enforcement agencies to help identify the potential leakages and tighten its regulation on the sector.

“We are very proud of what the fintechs over the years have been able to do for the country and the positive impact that it is having not just in the country but worldwide globally,” Cardoso said.

“However, regulation is very critical in a sector that seems to have grown so incredibly rapidly.

“More recently, we had cause to take a deep dive look at the whole issue of illicit flows and money laundering, particularly within the more heavy regulated banking system and we all know some of the issues that came out with crypto and some of the messages that we put out after that, which of course, gave us some cause to know that there was need for heightened surveillance.

“We are very happy that we have been able to have a very major handshake with the law enforcement agencies which have helped to, in no small measure for us, identify where the potential leakages are and the places where we need to tighten on our regulation and our surveillance.

“For that reason, we will consent with respect to how we saw the issue of anti-money laundering and illicit flows as it made their way within various sub sectors of the financial industry and we felt there was a need for us to take a breather and see how we could work with the different players to strengthen regulations, not by any means to throw them out of business.”

‘WE HAVE NOT REVOKED LICENCE OF ANY FINTECH’

Cardoso said the bank has not revoked the licence of any fintech.

He, however, said there are measures being put in place to strengthen them to benefit the public.

“Let me say something here, who benefits from this and who loses from it? If we get it wrong, the public loses from it, if we get it right, the public benefits from it,” he said.

“It is our intention to ensure that our system is one that will benefit the general public and it is for that reason that we have sat down, and we have tried to bring out remedial measures that will help that sector to tighten up on onboarding and even existing clientele base.”

Cardoso expressed confidence that within the next few months, these issues will be a thing of the past as the fintech industry will be back with a robust regulatory framework.