Investigate Your Customers’ Source Of Income - EFCC Tells Banks

Abdulrasheed Bawa

Following the worsening rate of corruption in the country, The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has asked banks to investigate the source of income of their customers before opening an account for them.

Chairman of the anti-graft agency, Abdulrasheed Bawa made the appeal when visited by members of the Association of Chief Audit Executives of Banks in Nigeria (ACAEBIN) in Abuja.

Bawa also disclosed that they will start holding banks liable for fraud in financial deposits, where there are established cases of complicity in the sector from September 1.

He said;

“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 need for you to try and query these information including their linked accounts.

"Bank auditors should take issues of transparency in banking operations seriously."

Uduak Udoh, vice-chairman of the association on his own part asked for support from the EFCC as some customers are allegedly conniving with bank staff to loot funds.

He said;

“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."