Customers’ Social Media Handles and 6 Things to Know About CBN’s New KYC Rules

• The Central Bank of Nigeria issued a raft of new rules for banks and other financial institutions
• The new rules mandate banks and financial institutions to obtain specific information from customers
• The new rules apply to individuals and corporate entities to bolster the anti-terrorism laws

The Central Bank of Nigeria has asked banks to obtain the social media handles of their customers as part of its newly released due diligence requirements for bank customers.

Legit. ng reported on the demands by CBN to ask customers for their social media handles.

CBN seeks to boost the anti-money and anti-terrorism financing laws

The bank released a raft of new Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements for bank customers on Friday, June 24, 2023, as part of efforts to strengthen the anti-money laundering laws.

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The apex bank released its Due Diligence Regulations 2023 for financial institutions under its regulatory supervision to tighten the noose on financial crimes.

Per the statement by CBN, the latest move is to enhance compliance with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing provisions as it aligns with international best practices.

The new due diligence rules apply to both individuals and legal entities.

Here are the new diligence rules introduced by the CBN

The Due Diligence Regulations 2023 require financial institutions to establish internal mechanisms and processes to carry out due diligence measures for potential and existing customers, including occasional customers.

Banks and other financial institutions must identify customers, individuals, or legal entities and get specific information such as legal names, addresses, contact details, identification documents, account types, nature of banking relationships, and signatures.

The new regulations highlight the need to identify politically exposed persons.

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Financial institutions must engage reliable and independent source documents, data, or information to confirm customer identities.

For individuals, this involves confirming their date of birth, residential address, contact details, and the validity of official documents.

For legal persons or legal arrangements, financial institutions must launch searches on public registries or databases, review their annual reports or relevant financial statements, and examine board resolutions.

The regulations stress the importance of record-keeping and maintaining up-to-date customer information.

Banks and financial institutions must retain records obtained via the customer due diligence measures, account files, business correspondence, and analysis results for at least five years after the termination or expiration of a business relationship or occasional transactions.

They are to regularly review existing customer records based on risk categories, with high-risk customers requiring annual reviews, medium-risk customers requiring review every 18 months, and low-risk customers requiring checks every three weeks.

CBN Orders Access, Zenith, other banks to demand social media handles of customers, 9 other information

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Legit.ng reported that the Central Bank of Nigeria had asked all financial institutions, including commercial banks, to collect and verify customers' social media handles as part of their Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements.

The new directive applies to individuals and legal entities' customers as captured in CBN's Customer Due Diligence Regulations for 2023, obtained by Legit.ng.

The CBN hopes that the social media handles will enhance financial institutions' accuracy and depth of customer identification.

Source: Legit.ng