ACCOBIN tasks government on financial sector compliance

The Association of Chief Compliance Officers of Banks in Nigeria (ACCOBIN) has advised the Federal Government to adopt a holistic approach in managing compliance in the country’s financial sector.

It said the approach would involve all stakeholders in the financial value chain with regard to government war against corruption and other economic crimes in the country.

Specifically, the move would stem money laundering, terrorism financing and other criminal activities, which pose a serious threat to Nigeria’s financial services industry.

Chairman of ACCOBIN, Opeyemi Adojutelegan, who stated this during a press briefing to commemorate its 10 years of pioneering interdisciplinary compliance, disclosed the association collaborated with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to ensure that the anti-graft war succeeds in the country.

In marking its decade of existence, the association mapped out a one-week event with a walk against corruption at the weekend in Lagos, saying the walk was to raise awareness about the seriousness of corruption.

Other activities for the week include a compliance awareness day and career talk day, among others. Adojutelegan said to prevent fraudsters from gaining access to the systems, the association ensured that banks had a uniform account opening packages.

“In the last ten years, the country has witnessed an upsurge in terrorism financing. Banks in Nigeria compete and exert a lot of pressure to mobilise funds from customers. For compliance officers, we’ve taken that competitiveness out of our forum. We do not wait for regulators to tell us what to do.

“One of the challenges we had in the country was the fact that banks did not have a uniform account opening package, when you go to bank A, they’ll have some five documents while bank B will have 10”.

“So most people who are involved in money laundering or terrorism financing will look for the weakest link in the banking industry to perpetrate evil by opening accounts with them. What ACCOBIN did was to come up with uniform opening packages where the rules will be standard and applicable to all banks,” he said.

He added that to educate members of the public on compliance in the financial sector, it established the Compliance Institute of Nigeria (CIN).