The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Tuesday, banned banks from all transactions in bitcoin and other virtual currencies. A circular signed by the apex bank’s director, financial policy and regulation department, Kelvin Amugo, stated that the move was necessitated by money laundering and terrorism financing risks inherent in operations of virtual currencies.
“The emergence of Virtual Currencies (VCs) has attracted investments in payments infrastructure that provides new methods of transmitting value over the internet. The Central Bank therefore advised banks to ensure that they do not use, hold, and transact in virtual currencies. The CBN stressed that virtual currencies such as Bitcoin, Ripples, Monero, Litecoin, Dogecion, Onecoin and similar products are not legal tenders in Nigeria, thus any bank or institution that transacts in
such business does so at its own risk.
The apex bank’s directive is coming after the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, issued a warning against virtual currencies.
No comments:
Post a Comment