Customers Now Require Social Media Handles For Banks KYC – CBN
As part of the institutions’ Know Your Customer (KYC) obligations, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has made it essential for financial institutions to gather and verify clients’ social media handles.
As it adopts a resolute stance against financial crimes, the CBN made this clear on June 23 when it announced its Customer Due Diligence Regulations 2023 for financial institutions under its regulatory scope.
The measure, according to the top bank, was intended to improve bank customers’ adherence to anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing (CFT) regulations while adhering to global best practices.
According to Thabo Mbeki’s assessment on illicit cash flow in Africa, this movement is estimated to reach $80 billion yearly, which has led to worries about an upsurge in terrorism on the continent.
The CBN’s Anti-Money Laundering, Combating the Financing of Terrorism, and Countering Proliferation Financing of Weapons of Mass Destruction in Financial Institutions Regulations of 2022 include provisions that the new regulations supplement. These regulations were created to strengthen efforts to combat money laundering, the financing of terrorism, and proliferation financing.
Banks must set up internal systems and procedures for undertaking customer due diligence checks on both potential and current clients, including occasional customers, in accordance with the new laws.
They must identify clients, whether they are people or businesses, and gather precise data such as legal names, addresses, phone numbers, and signatures from both persons and businesses. The regulations emphasize the necessity of locating politically exposed individuals (PEPs).
Banks must rely on trustworthy and independent source documents, data, or information to authenticate customer identities.
