CBN to clamp down on illegal fintech companies

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has indicated it will be identifying illegal financial technology companies (fintech) operating in the financial space illegally and bring them under regulatory controls.

The Deputy Governor, Financial Systems Stability Directorate,  CBN, Aishah Ahmad gave the indication during a panel discussion on cyber security at the ongoing IM/World Bank annual meetings in Washington DC.

“So those we need to identify and watch what they are doing, those we need to refine our regulatory framework for because right now, it is skewed to banks and the payment service companies but right now we have other companies emerging that do not quite fit into that space. We are also looking at moving from regulation by identification but more around regulating their activity,” she said.

According to her, ‘’We don’t want to stifle innovation so we want more companies to come up and assist because fintechs do a lot for furthering financial inclusion objective”.

Mrs. Ahmad also said cyber security is not an IT issue, it is not an issue for chief information officers, it is a business risk issue and a regulatory risk issue.

“And because it has the potential to disrupt IT operations and financial sectors and its ability to disrupt the mandate that we have as for financial stability, it is important that central banks focus on resilience,” she said.