By Isaac Anumihe
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has threatened to suspend and dismiss any Executive Compliance Officer (ECO) and Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) found wanting in the discharge of his/her responsibility.
This is as the apex bank, at the weekend, mandated Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) to appoint Chief Compliance Officers (CCOs) ,whose minimum qualification is not below the rank of a general manager, and an Executive Compliance Officer (ECO), who should not be below the rank of an Executive Director. While the CCO will report to the ECO, the ECO will in turn report directly to the board of directors.
“To this end, DMBs are required to forward the names of their ECO and CCO together with their curriculum vitae to the CBN for approval on or before October 10, 2016.“
The CBN will hold the Executive Compliance Officer responsible and accountable for any breach of any extant regulation in the DMBs.
For the avoidance of doubt, the CBN shall suspend, dismiss any ECO and CCO found wanting in the discharge of his/her responsibility”, the apex bank said in a circular to all DMBs.
This, according to the statement, is to ensure strict compliance with all extant regulations, particularly those relating to foreign exchange transactions, Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT). “The ECOs are however, allowed to combine the responsibility with other functions while CCOs will focus only on compliance matters in the bank” the statement, said.