The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has notified all Bureax De Change (BDCs) operators in the country that it will, “with immediate effect,” commence mystery shopping exercises, “as part of its enhanced efforts to combat money laundering, the financing of terrorism, proliferation financing and other illicit financial activities.”
In a letter to BDCs posted on its website on Thursday, the apex bank stated that the initiative, “will complement existing supervisory activities, including routine and targeted examinations, as well as spot checks.”
The letter said: “Mystery shopping will involve the deployment of anonymous compliance testers to assess the practical implementation of Anti-Money Laundering (AML)/Combating the Financing of Terrorism(CFT)/Counter Proliferation Financing (CPF) obligations by BDCs. This includes ensuring adequate customer identification, adherence to proper Know-Your-Customer(KYC) procedures and reporting suspicious transactions.
The letter reminded BDCs that they are required to fully comply with the provisions of the Money Laundering(Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022; the Terrorism(Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022; the regulatory and supervisory guidelines for Bureau De Change operators in Nigeria, 2024 and any other relevant laws, regulations and guidelines issued by the CBN and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU).
The regulator warned BDC operators that, “failure to comply with Anti-Money Laundering (AML)/Combating the Financing of Terrorism(CFT)/Counter Proliferation Financing (CPF) obligations, including lapses identified through mystery shopping, will attract severe regulatory sanctions, including monetary penalties and/or revocation of operating licenses.”
It advised BDCs, “to ensure that their operations, staff training, transaction monitoring and customer onboarding procedures are always fully compliant with applicable requirements.”
