The Senate passes a bill letting the CBN designate and supervise systemically important fintechs
Key findings
- The Senate passed SB. 959, an amendment to the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act 2020, on 10 November, ThisDay and Leadership reported.
- The CBN would be able to designate non-bank financial institutions as Systemically Important Institutions, based on size, transaction volumes, customer base and links to the wider system.
- Designated firms would face stress tests, data-integrity checks, enhanced reporting, supervisory access to their systems and stricter ownership disclosure, with sanctions for breaches.
- The bill still needs the House of Representatives' concurrence and the President's assent before it becomes law.
The Senate on 10 November passed, at third reading, a bill to amend the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020 so that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) can designate and regulate systemically important fintechs and other non-bank financial institutions, ThisDay and Leadership reported. The bill, SB. 959, was sponsored by the chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions and passed after clause-by-clause consideration by the whole Senate.
What the bill does
The CBN would set criteria for designating a non-bank financial institution as a Systemically Important Institution, looking at its size, transaction volumes, customer base and interconnectedness with the banking system, and would keep an official register of the firms it designates. Those firms would be held to stricter standards on:
- corporate governance and the transparency of ownership and control, including beneficial ownership disclosure;
- cybersecurity, technology risk management and operational resilience;
- stress testing, data-integrity assessments and enhanced regulatory reporting;
- supervisory access to their information and operating systems, backed by enforcement powers and sanctions.
According to the committee's report, as ThisDay described it, the bill drew broad support at a public hearing on 4 March 2026. The CBN backed risk-based supervision of large fintech operators. The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission supported closer oversight but asked that prudential regulation be kept distinct from competition and consumer protection, and that the two regulators coordinate to avoid duplication. The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Nigerian Communications Commission and several banks also supported the bill.
Why it matters
Fintech operators now play a growing part in Nigeria's payments and transfers, as both outlets noted, and their links to the banks mean a failure at a large one could reach the wider system. The bill would give the CBN a statutory basis to supervise the largest of them more like banks; by its design, firms that are not designated would stay under their existing licences.
What to watch
- Concurrence by the House of Representatives and presidential assent.
- The criteria and thresholds the CBN sets for designation, and which firms it names first.
- How the CBN and the FCCPC divide supervision of designated firms.
Methodology
This piece is based on ThisDay's and Leadership's reports of the Senate's 10 November proceedings on SB. 959 and of the Senate committee's report on the bill. It contains no statistical figures.