The Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) yesterday urged the House of Representatives to amend the laws, so as to empowers it to revoke the licences of erring banks and power to be able to inject funds in a ailing bank.Eyes Of Lagos gathered that, CBN Governor, Godwin Emefelie, stated this yesterday in Abuja at the commencement of a -two public hearing organised by the House of Representatives Committee on Banking and Currency on a bill to amend the Banking and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) and other bills. Emefiele, who was represented by the Director, Legal Services department, Mr. Johnson Akinwunmi, also called for the abolition of shell banks in the country. He said Shell banks,which are institutions that carry out activities where they are not licensed, serve as avenue for money laundering. The CBN boss added that apart from being used for money laundering, the Shell banks distort the banking system and pose a problem to regulatory agencies. ” We wish to propose the introduction of new subsections 3(6) and (7) for the proscription of shell banks in response to the latest recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on money laundering to read: “Any bank or its subsidiaries without physical presence in the country where it is incorporated and licensed and is not affiliated to any financial services group that is subject to effective consolidated supervision shall not be allowed to operate in Nigeria and no Nigerian bank orbits subsidiaries shall establish or continue any relationship with such bank or subsidiary’”. Earlier, in his welcome address, chairman of the House committee on Banking and Currency, Hon.Jones Onyereri said some of the proposed amendment to Bofia Act include an increase in the penalty for erring banks and officials. Onyereri said some of the penalties in include: “a fine of N20 million on banks that fail to comply to the conditions of the licence, a fine of N20 million on any director that fails to declare any property he/she owns that runs contrary to the Act. “A fine of N10 million against a director or manager that fails to keep a book of account and a fine of N2 million on banks that fail to publish its annual report of its general meeting in two reputable national dailies among others” The lawmaker said the increase in the penalties to defaulting banks and their operators would streamline the operations of such banks to conform to international best practices.
