Afrigather Nigeria’s Central Financial institution has revoked the license of greater than 4,000 Bureau De Change operators (BDCs) weeks after sharing vital rule modifications for his or her operations.
The affected operators did not pay vital charges, render returns or adjust to anti-money laundering and terrorism financing rules, the apex financial institution mentioned in a press release on Friday.
“The CBN is revising the regulatory and supervisory pointers for Bureau de Change operations in Nigeria. Compliance with the brand new necessities shall be obligatory for all stakeholders within the sector when the revised pointers turn out to be efficient,” the assertion mentioned.
The revocation of the licences comes simply 4 days after the Central Bank reversed its three-year stance on selling dollars to eligible BDCs.
The U-turn got here days after the Central Financial institution launched new guidelines for BDCs that required them to be extra clear. Below the brand new guidelines, operators should have exterior auditors, digitally combine with the CBN, and hyperlink all transactions to an energetic financial institution verification quantity (BVN). The Central Financial institution additionally elevated the minimal capital necessities for BDCs to N2 billion for Tier 1 license holders and N500 million for Tier 2 licenses.
This vary of measures by the Central Financial institution seeks to provide the apex financial institution perception into transactions from the parallel market. On Wednesday, the Nationwide Safety Adviser (NSA) arrested two Binance executives after authorities demanded to see an inventory of Nigerians who use Binance for peer-to-peer buying and selling of the USDT/NGN.
“What we’re hoping to perform by this, frankly, is to deliver some sanity to an business that arguably now not serves the pursuits of these whom it was meant to guard,” CBN governor Olayemi Cardoso mentioned on the finish of the rate-setting assembly on Tuesday.
TechCabal reported on Monday that the concern of being arrested by officers of Nigeria’s anti-graft company, the Financial and Monetary Crimes Fee (EFCC), has pushed foreign money merchants away from road buying and selling.
