BANKS UNDER WATCH: EFCC DEMANDS TIGHTER POS CONTROLS, FAST INVESTIGATION RESPONSE

• Nigeria’s banks are facing tougher accountability over PoS channels, investigative requests and suspicious accounts as authorities push for faster cooperation without compromising financial-crime investigations.

Banks have been directed to tighten oversight of Point-of-Sale deployment, respond promptly to investigative requests and enforce Post-No-Debit orders without alerting customers or account holders under investigation.

The directive places greater responsibility on banks to ensure that the terminals and accounts operating within their payment networks remain traceable, properly documented and subject to effective monitoring.

The move comes amid growing concern over the use of PoS channels in financial crime. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has said investigations have linked PoS machines to money laundering, terrorist financing, fraud and ransom payments. The agency has called for comprehensive records of operators and their activities to improve tracing and monitoring.

For banks, the compliance issue extends beyond issuing terminals. Institutions need reliable records linking agents and merchants to underlying accounts, verified business locations and transaction activity, while suspicious patterns require timely escalation.

Investigative letters also create a response test. Delayed or incomplete responses can frustrate efforts to trace funds, identify beneficiaries and preserve evidence across multiple financial institutions.

At the same time, enforcement actions must be handled discreetly. Post-No-Debit restrictions are intended to prevent further movement of funds while an investigation or legal process continues. Recent court proceedings have shown that freezing orders can become contested where procedural requirements or material facts are challenged.

The compliance challenge is therefore two-sided: banks must act quickly when legally required, while maintaining confidentiality and avoiding conduct that could compromise an investigation.

For financial institutions, the question is no longer simply whether a suspicious account can be frozen. It is whether the bank can demonstrate that its PoS deployment, monitoring, investigative response and account-restriction controls work together when criminal money starts moving.