Tackle Financial Crimes With Technology, Experts Urge Banks

Crime experts have tasked the Nigerian government and financial institutions to address the issue of financial crimes with deployment of new technologies.

Experts, who made the call at the Award Ceremony/Fin-Crime Summit in Lagos, averred that deployment of new technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, big data, and advanced cognitive analytics/algorithms, would drastically reduce financial crimes in the financial sector.

Certified Anti-Money Laundering Consultant (CAMC), Professor Ehi Eric Esoimeme, posited that the banking sector was marred by national barriers, legal barriers, institutional and operational barriers.

Explaining further, he said, “The national barriers include issues relating to the absence of reliable data from the government and an outdated national risk assessment on money laundering and terrorism financing.

“The legal barriers include but not limited to the lack of explicit guidance on the use of financial technology for data sharing and the lack of explicit regulatory requirements and guidance for the use of end-to-end anti-money laundering solution with embedded machine learning techniques. Institutional and operational barriers include cyber-attacks, insider fraud and ineffective information sharing among the parent and subsidiaries for anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) purposes.”

To effectively address the national, legal, institutional and operational barriers, Esoimeme recommended that Nigeria should update its National Risk Assessment regularly to reflect the risk profile of the country.

He also recommended that the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) should maintain timely, adequate, accurate and up-to-date Beneficial Ownership information.

For institutional and operational reforms, the consultant recommended that Banks and other financial institutions should ensure adequate staffing for the proper monitoring of day-to-day compliance with Cyber-security and process automation to mitigate cyber-attacks. Financial institutions should dedicate sufficient human and technological resources to minimise the risk of cyberattack, he advised.

On cross-border financial crime risks that are of priority concern to African Continental Free Trade Areas, Esoimeme urged law enforcement agents to increase their focus on complicit merchants who are facilitating trade-based money laundering (TBML), as well as Professionals, including individuals in the financial sector, accountants, real estate agents, and lawyers.

“Individuals who abuse their professional position at financial institutions also are a money laundering risk. These individuals facilitate the opening of accounts, conduct funds transfers, and cash checks while knowingly failing to verify customer identification when required, maintain accurate transaction records, or file required reports. Financial institutions with lax compliance programs also pose a money laundering risk. Finally, pursuing global money laundering syndicates requires law enforcement to partner with other countries to help trace illicit proceeds, identify relevant parties, collect evidence, and seize assets,” he further disclosed.

In his opening remark, assistant vice president, Compliance, HSBC Bangladesh, Rezaul Karim, outlined the consequences of ineffective anti-money laundering leadership and the strategies for building and leading anti-money laundering teams. In the last phase of his presentation, Rezaul identified the leadership challenges and solutions, and the key best practices for effective anti-money laundering leadership.

In the same vein, public relations officer at Rudolph Kwanue University, Paul Allieu Kamara, demonstrated how Anti-FinCrime leaders in the African Continental Free Trade Area can resolve complex problems in their organizations by defining the problem extensively, structuring the problem, prioritizing issues, conducting analysis, synthetizing findings and developing recommendations, and presenting findings and recommendations effectively.

Ehi Eric Esoimeme, a renowned expert in public law and financial crime compliance, was recently awarded Associate Professorship from Rudolph Kwanue University (Liberia) and Full Professorship from African Union University (Ethiopia) for his contributions to the field of Public Law and Financial Crime Compliance.

At the Award Ceremony/Fin-Crime Summit, Esoimeme received the Doctorate in Economics, Banking and Finance (Honoris Causa), Doctorate in International Relations (Honoris Causa) and Certificate of Membership of Board of Trusteeship from Institu Universitare Du Benin (IUB) University, and a special award of recognition from the Nigeria Police Force, Police Community Relations Committee (PCRC) Area C Command in recognition of his selfless service to humanity, rare display of love to the Nigerian Police and Philanthropic Dispositions.