The Central Bank of Nigeria has extended the deadline for financial institutions to comply with new baseline standards for automated anti-money laundering solutions aimed at strengthening the country’s financial crime monitoring framework.
Under the revised timeline, Deposit Money Banks have 18 months from March 10, 2026, to achieve full compliance, while other financial institutions have 24 months to meet the requirements.
The directive was contained in a circular issued by the apex bank and signed by the Director of the Banking Supervision Department, Akinwunmi Olubukola, alongside Olubunmi Ayodele-Oni for the Compliance Department.
According to the CBN, all affected institutions must submit their implementation roadmaps to the Compliance Department within three months, outlining how they plan to transition to the new system.
The regulator said the standards are designed to strengthen the detection and reporting of suspicious financial transactions in real time and enhance compliance with laws relating to anti-money laundering, terrorism financing and proliferation financing.
The framework requires banks and other financial institutions to deploy automated systems capable of supporting customer due diligence, transaction monitoring and accurate reporting to authorities such as the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit.
The CBN noted that manual compliance systems are no longer sufficient as financial services become increasingly digitised and complex, making automated solutions necessary for effective risk management.
It added that the standards align with global Financial Action Task Force recommendations and include provisions for sanctions screening, fraud monitoring, audit trails, data security and the use of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning.
