First City Monument Bank (FCMB) will, henceforth, flag accounts with huge amount of holders between the ages of 18 – 30 years. The bank has now asked its staff to be on the lookout for money launderers and other criminal activities in the bank.
An internal email within the bank titled ‘Compliance Advisory on Cryptocurrency Dealing/Transactions’ is in furtherance of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s ban on the trading of cryptocurrency in the country.
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Accounts “with high volume transactions operated by individuals between the age brackets of 18-30 years as signatories should be flagged for possible fraudulent activities by staff members”, the memo said.
Other account types with similarly discriminatory guidelines will include youth savings accounts, business savings accounts, personal business accounts, amongst others.
However, there was no clear cut definition of what constitutes a ‘high volume’ of transactions, but the account types listed captured all of its available packages for Nigerian youths.
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The internal email urges staff to monitor the listed accounts for red flags “in order to make the Bank safe and protected from the activities of criminals, organised gangs, money launderers and terrorist financiers.”
This FCMB’s memo, however, marked the latest escalation in the enforcement of the CBN’s directive. Section 42 of the Nigerian Constitution prohibits discrimination against citizens under whatever guise. It is noteworthy, however, that the FCMB did not return calls and e-mails seeking comments about the leaked memo to staff members.