Obtain customers’ social media handles for Identification – CBN mandates banks 

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has issued a directive to financial institutions, requiring them to collect customers’ social media handles as part of the identification process. Additionally, the CBN has instructed banks to gather other information, including email addresses, telephone numbers, and residential addresses.

This mandate is outlined in the new CBN customer due diligence regulations, which aim to enhance the identification procedures within the banking system. The document titled “CBN’s (Customer Due Diligence) Regulations, 2023” was published on the CBN’s website on Friday.

The CBN emphasizes that these regulations are intended to establish additional measures for customer due diligence in financial institutions under its regulatory oversight.

According to the apex bank, it is “To provide additional customer due diligence measures for financial institutions under the regulatory purview of the Central Bank of Nigeria to further their compliance with relevant provisions of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act (MLPPA), 2022, Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act (TPPA), 2022, Central Bank of Nigeria (Anti-Money Laundering, Combating the Financing of Terrorism and Countering Proliferation Financing of Weapons of Mass Destruction in Financial Institutions) Regulations, 2022 (CBN AML, CFT, and CPF Regulations) and international best practices.

“And enable the CBN to enforce compliance with customer due diligence measures in line with the CBN AML, CFT and CPF Regulations.”