By Leshi Adebayo
The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa, has implored banks in the country to question the sources of income of their potential customers before opening an account for them.
Bawa gave the advice on Tuesday during a courtesy visit to the commission’s headquarters in Abuja, by the Association of Chief Audit Executives of Banks in Nigeria, (ACAEBIN), led by the Chairman, Yinka Tiamiyu.
The EFCC Chief implored the bank auditors to take issues of transparency in banking operations seriously. He added that by September 1, 2021, business as usual will be over as the commission will hold banks liable where there are established cases of institutional complicity in fraud in the sector.
Mr Bawa affirmed the commission’s willingness to partner with the association in tackling financial crimes and related challenges in the banking sector.
In his words, he said, “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.”
On the other hand, Tiamiyu said they were in the Commission to seek improved partnership between banks and the EFCC in tacking economic and financial crimes.
He stated that the commitment of banks as lead actors in the nation’s financial system to sanitising the system, noting that it was not in the interest of the organizations to incubate or suppress financial malfeasance.
Buttressing this point by Tiamiyu, Uduak Udoh, Vice Chairman of the Association said, “Some customers are conniving with bank staff to loot funds. We want you to look into that area, not only the banks as we are ready to give you all the cooperation you need; we want you to trust bank auditors with information sharing because we cannot support fraudulent staff as they are a threat to the organization.”
They used the opportunity of the visit to highlight issues of concern to them and their organizations, including fast-tracking the consideration of petitions from banks by the EFCC.
Source: The Guardian
