EFCC to Punish Banks for Fraudulent Deposits from September 1

By Aduragbemi Omiyale

Banks operating in Nigeria have been informed that from Wednesday, September 1, 2021, they would be held liable for fraudulent deposits if they fail to provide the necessary information to the government.

This warning was dished out on Tuesday by the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Abdulrasheed Bawa, when he held a meeting with the Association of Chief Audit Executives of Banks in Nigeria (ACAEBIN).

He said the commission was determined “to rid our country of corruption” but stressed that the agency “cannot do this job alone” as it needs information to achieve this goal.

Mr Bawa said the EFCC would be happy to work closely with ACAEBIN in tackling financial crimes and related challenges in the banking sector.

The EFCC boss appealed to the bank auditors to take issues of transparency in banking operations seriously, adding that starting from September 1, 2021, it will no longer be business as usual as the commission will hold banks liable where there are established cases of institutional complicity in fraud in the sector.

“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 a need for you to try and query this information including their linked accounts,” Mr Bawa said.

In his remarks, the Chairman of ACAEBIN, Mr Yinka Tiamiyu, said his association was ready to cooperate with the anti-graft agency to sanitise the banking industry as it was not in the interest of the organizations to incubate or suppress financial malfeasance.

Amplifying this point, the Vice Chairman of the group, Mr Uduak Udoh, noted that, “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.”