Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, on Tuesday placed ban on banks from any transactions in virtual currencies.
CBN – Central Bank of Nigeria
Director, Financial Policy and Regulation department, CBN, Mr. Kelvin Amugo, who announced the ban said it was necessitated by money laundering and terrorism financing risks inherent in operations of virtual currencies.
In a circular to banks and other financial institutions on virtual currency operations in Nigeria, Amogu stated: “The emergence of Virtual Currencies (VCs) has attracted investments in payments infrastructure that provides new methods of transmitting value over the internet”.
The CBN ban is coming a week after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a warning against virtual currencies.
