- The CBN introduced a draught Baseline Standard to automate anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing processes crossed Nigerian fiscal institutions
- The modular mandates integration of AML solutions with real-time monitoring, AI-driven hazard assessment, sanctions screening, and lawsuit verification systems
- It aims to heighten compliance, efficiency, and detection of suspicious transactions portion aligning with planetary champion practices
Legit.ng writer Zainab Iwayemi has 5-year-experience covering the Economy, Technology, and Capital Market
With the instauration of a draught Baseline Standard for Automated Anti-Money Laundering Solutions yesterday, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is attempting to automate the processes of combating violent financing and anti-money laundering (AML/CFT) successful the Nigerian fiscal system.

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The CBN called for feedback connected the draft, stating that the accrued grade of digitalisation successful the fiscal strategy has made automation inevitable.
The last model volition beryllium released erstwhile stakeholders person had a accidental to remark connected the projected standards until June 13, 2025.
Financial institutions volition person a twelvemonth from that day to implicit compliance.
Financial institutions to comply
According to Dr. Olubukola Akinwunmi, Director of Banking Supervision, the extremity of the standard, is to promote fiscal institutions to comply with AML/CFT regulations and run much efficiently.
The CBN stated that it would beforehand the usage of caller technologies to amended the real-time detection and reporting of suspicious transactions, pointing retired that the projected standards are accordant with planetary champion practices.
AML solutions indispensable beryllium integrated with fiscal systems successful bid to comply with the standard, which volition beryllium applicable to deposit wealth banks, microfinance banks, owe banks, digital outgo work providers, and different fiscal institutions.
As per the draft, the AML solutions should encompass hazard assessment, recognition and verification, sanctions screening, transaction monitoring, regulatory reporting, hazard profiling, politically exposed persons, and different high-risk profiles.
Financial institutions indispensable instrumentality AML systems
Financial institutions must, therefore, instrumentality AML systems with a centralized dashboard that provides lawsuit management, inclination analysis, tracking, and real-time reporting.
Additionally, the technology "must integrate with home and planetary watchlists for sanctions screening" and volition usage AI-driven fuzzy matching algorithms to place sanction variants and similarities.
“Institutions shall behaviour periodic strategy accent investigating and validation to guarantee simplification of mendacious positives. The instauration should specify a predetermined threshold for mendacious positives and guarantee that the mendacious affirmative complaint remains beneath this threshold.“The AML solution shall person AI/ML capabilities for anomaly detection, behavioural signifier recognition, automated hazard scoring, and adaptive learning to urge improvements based connected insights from flagged alerts and solution outcomes.“The solution shall person real-time alerts for cross-border transactions (where applicable), excessive currency deposits, crypto-related transactions, oregon different high-risk activities arsenic defined successful enactment with extant AML regulations. Time taken to surface and marque decisions connected specified alerts shall not transcend the predetermined timeline.“The AML solution indispensable incorporated broad transaction monitoring capabilities, utilizing aggregate hazard scenarios based connected configurable filtration rules and lawsuit segmentation to observe suspicious activities.“The AML solution shall person real-time entree to the lawsuit owed diligence accusation for hazard profiling, screening, and transaction monitoring. Financial institutions shall automate their onboarding process with real-time lawsuit recognition and verification successful enactment with AML/CFT/CPF regulations. The strategy indispensable person the capableness for integration with BVN and/or NIN databases to guarantee real-time recognition and verification.”In summation to this, the strategy indispensable connection afloat KYC/KYB capableness that includes transactional behaviour, humanities data, automated lawsuit hazard profiling, and further hazard factors derived from ML/TF/PF hazard assessments and typologies.
Fraudsters bargain N52.26 cardinal from Nigerian banks
Legit.ng reported that contempt continuous efforts to amended information systems, Nigerian banks reported a startling N52.26 cardinal nonaccomplishment to fraud in 2024, a concern that highlights the expanding sophistication of fiscal crimes.
According to the astir caller study from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), the banking industry is inactive earnestly threatened by fraudulent activities specified arsenic insider collusion, relationship manipulation, and individuality theft.
However, NIBSS and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) were capable to efficaciously retrieve N1.74 cardinal to halt these amerciable actions and reclaim stolen cash.
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Source: Legit.ng