Every week, compliance and financial crime teams across the world are working through new enforcement actions, new regulatory guidance, and new expectations. Most of it moves fast enough that it is easy to miss. Probe’s Compliance Watch pulls together what actually matters from the past week, organized by region, so your team can walk into Monday already caught up.
Here is what happened last week.
Nigeria
Regulatory Updates
FCCPC and NMDPRA sign a pact on petroleum sector transparency and coordinated enforcement
The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority signed an agreement this week to promote transparency and fair competition in Nigeria’s petroleum sector, with both agencies committing to deepen information sharing, improve market intelligence, and coordinate enforcement activities nationwide. It is a small but telling example of Nigerian regulators leaning into inter-agency cooperation rather than working in silos, a pattern worth watching as more sector regulators start signing similar pacts.
AML/CFT & Financial Crime
EFCC and ICPC keep pressing on proceeds of crime, while a forfeiture order draws pushback
The EFCC arraigned Osaretin Osagiede before the Lagos State High Court on September 7 over an alleged N700 million fraud, with the court ordering his remand after he was accused of receiving funds stolen from Best Start Micro Finance Bank on a charge bordering on unauthorised access to computer material and receiving stolen property. Separately, a group of 70 Nigerians moved this week to challenge the ICPC’s N941.9 million final forfeiture order tied to the long-running IPPIS ghost worker investigation, alleging the commission mixed up bank accounts and swept up funds belonging to people with no connection to the fraud. Whatever the outcome, the dispute is a useful reminder that account-freezing and forfeiture actions carry real due-process risk when the underlying account-matching isn’t airtight, a lesson that applies just as much to private-sector screening and monitoring processes as it does to law enforcement.
Other Regions
AML/CFT & Financial Crime
OFAC keeps designating, adding transnational crime and Iran-related names within a day of each other
OFAC stayed active through the week. On September 9, the agency issued Transnational Criminal Organizations Designations alongside a Counter Terrorism Designation and a set of new and amended Frequently Asked Questions. The very next day, September 10, it followed with Iran-related and Counter Terrorism Designations, a licensing policy update under Operation Economic Outcast, and a settlement agreement between OFAC and an individual. Two separate rounds of designations in consecutive days is a reminder that institutions screening against US sanctions lists need a refresh cadence measured in days, not weeks.
What This Means for Your Compliance Program
The throughline across this week’s updates is a familiar one. Regulators and enforcement agencies are not just issuing new rules, they are testing whether existing controls hold up in practice, whether that is an inter-agency transparency pact meant to close enforcement gaps, a fraud case built on unauthorised account access, a forfeiture order now facing scrutiny over account-matching accuracy, or sanctions lists that keep moving day to day. Getting the details right at the account and transaction level is what determines whether an institution stays ahead of these developments or ends up explaining a gap after the fact.
If your team is still reconciling screening lists manually or working out how the SEC’s proposed digital asset rules will affect your onboarding flow, that is worth a conversation. Reach out to Probe at probecompliance.com/contact to see how institutions across Nigeria, Africa, and the UK are closing that gap.
Compliance Watch is a weekly roundup from Probe Compliance covering regulatory updates, AML/CFT and financial crime, and industry developments across Nigeria, Africa, Europe, and the rest of the world. Check back next week for the latest.