Investigate customers’ source of income – EFCC tells Ecobank, Access Bank, Fidelity, others

The chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has told banks to be more committed to tackling financial crimes and related challenges in the banking sector.

He said during a meeting with the Association of Chief Audit Executives of Banks in Nigeria (ACAEBIN) on Tuesday, August 24, 2021 that the anti-graft agency alone cannot rid the country of corruption.

The 41-year-old said bank auditors must take issues of transparency in banking operations seriously.

“I will like to urge you to know your customers, know the kind of businesses they do before opening an account for them because some customers will open an account within a space of two months a huge sum of money is found in the account.

“So there is need for you to try and query these information including their linked accounts,” he said.

The EFCC boss further warned that the agency will start holding banks liable where there are established cases of institutional complicity in fraud in the sector.

In a meeting with bank directors last week, he said financial institutions must help fight fraudulent election financing, foreign exchange malpractices, and money laundering.

“Any banker complicit in any such financial fraud will face the full wrath of the law.

“It is better to have fewer banks complying with the laws of the land than to have multiple banks not complying with the laws,” he said.

At Tuesday’s meeting, ACAEBIN chairman, Yinka Tiamiyu, pledged the commitment of the association to helping the EFCC sanitise the financial system.