Banks assisting money laundering, says CBN

The acting Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Dr. Sarah Alade, has accused banks of aiding money laundering, which has put their integrity, skilled and moral requirements unsure.

Sarah Alade Acting CBN Governor

Speaking on the regional course on Combating Money Laundering and different Financial Crimes organised by the West African Institute for Financial and Economic Management, WAIFEM, in Abuja, yesterday, she mentioned that the involvement of banks in cash laundering have been in a number of respects.

According to her, “bank facilities are used knowingly and unknowingly to further the act of money laundering and in most cases to retain the proceeds of such crime,” in an address read on her behalf by the Director, Research of CBN, Mr. Charles Mordi.

She said: “Over 80 percent of the proceeds of money laundering are associated with banks, one way or the other, all over the world.”

She defined that such actions included spherical tripping, monetary fraud, capital flight, faux cheques, faux currency minting, advanced price fraud and insiders abuse.

Those concerned in these acts, she argued, trigger distortions within the monetary markets by misallocation of funding, warning that cash laundering additionally has a dampening impact on foreign direct investment, FDI, “when a country’s commercial and financial sector are perceived to be associated with the incidence of organised crimes.”

According to the CBN boss, such practices have “deleterious macroeconomic consequences such as inexplicable changes in money demand, prudential risks to banks soundness, contamination effects of legal financial transactions and increased volatility of international capital flows and exchange rate due to unanticipated cross border asset transfers.”

Alade lamented that a focus of financial energy by organised crime spells doom and will all too simply infect the political terrain of any nation.

The actions of cash laundering and terrorists have been described as borderless they usually “form part of a large network operating across agencies and across borders.”Alade lamented that a concentration of economic power by organised crime spells doom and could all too easily infect the political terrain of any nation.

The activities of money laundering and terrorists were described as borderless and they “form part of a large network operating across agencies and across borders.”

This, she stated, has exerted extra strain on governments within the sub-area to place in place satisfactory measures to fight this menace.

In view of the rising menace of cash laundering, law enforcement, she stated, “appears a needle in a haystack effort” but this should neither deter nor dampen the enthusiasm of law enforcers.

Speaking earlier on the occasion, the Director General of WAIFEM, Professor Akpan Ekpo, described money laundering as a key menace to monetary stability in any financial system, particularly growing economies.

He urged regulatory authorities within the West Africa to shut ranks

Banks assisting money laundering, says CBN