{"id":1797,"date":"2026-11-09T07:53:04","date_gmt":"2026-11-09T07:53:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.probecompliance.com\/?p=1797"},"modified":"2026-11-09T07:53:04","modified_gmt":"2026-11-09T07:53:04","slug":"compliance-watch-november-2-6-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.probecompliance.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/09\/compliance-watch-november-2-6-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Compliance Watch: November 2 – 6, 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Probe<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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. Compliance Watch pulls together what actually matters from the past week, organized by region, so your team can walk into Monday already caught up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is what happened last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nigeria<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Regulatory Updates<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The CBN publishes its stablecoin rulebook: \u20a615 billion in capital, no standalone P2P licence, and a BVN match on every crypto release<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The biggest regulatory story of the week came from the CBN, which issued its 169-page Regulations for the Operations of Non-Security Virtual Assets in Nigeria on November 5. The framework covers stablecoins, deposit money tokens, virtual asset service providers, virtual asset payment services and platform-facilitated peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions. Issuers of foreign currency stablecoins, classified as Class 2, must be Nigerian-incorporated, CBN-licensed and hold at least \u20a615 billion in paid-up capital, while issuers of naira-referenced stablecoins, Class 1, need \u20a610 billion. Other virtual asset service providers offering custody, wallets and similar services must hold at least \u20a61 billion, and that capital cannot be double counted against any capital already held for an SEC licence. On the compliance side, the CBN will not issue a standalone P2P licence, so any platform that facilitates P2P trades needs the CBN’s explicit approval. Before a platform releases or credits regulated tokens, the name on the naira payment account must match the verified customer’s BVN. Securities-type virtual assets stay with the SEC, and activities that touch both regulators need approval from each. For exchanges, wallets and fintechs, this turns the earlier SEC and CBN signals into concrete obligations on capital, identity matching and local presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EFCC and NFIU:<\/strong> At a joint security press briefing in Abuja on November 5, the EFCC said it has recovered \u20a61.23 trillion and secured more than 10,000 convictions, and that it maintains a 98 percent prosecution success rate. The NFIU’s preparations for the national mock mutual evaluation, scheduled for November, continue to shape how agencies present results ahead of Nigeria’s FATF assessment. No new SEC announcements were identified for the week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AML\/CFT & Financial Crime<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Operation Artemis: Nigeria and the FBI extradite two suspects in a sextortion case<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The EFCC disclosed that a joint operation with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, codenamed Operation Artemis, led to the arrest and extradition of two Nigerian nationals, Adebola Festus Adekunle and Mudashiru Afeez Olawale, who were indicted in the United States for the sexual exploitation and sextortion of minors. The Nigerian presidency and the FBI Director both commended the operation. These are allegations in a US case, and the defendants remain presumed innocent until a court rules. The case builds on last month’s West African scam crackdown and shows how routinely Nigerian and US agencies now work together, and how financial flows tied to online exploitation increasingly sit inside the scope of compliance teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

United Kingdom<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Regulatory Updates<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The FCA turns to quantum computing to catch money launderers, and restricts six lenders over AML concerns<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The FCA announced on November 5 that it will launch a Quantum Experimentation Group in the first quarter of 2027, the first of its kind for a regulator. The group will bring together financial firms, quantum technology providers and national research labs to test whether quantum machine learning can help detect money laundering and fraud, using a synthetic dataset to get around data access barriers. Separately, the FCA restricted six lenders registered under Annex 1 following concerns about their AML policies, controls and procedures. The restrictions limit new customers or further business with existing ones, several firms must obtain independent reviews, and the FCA is also assessing responses to an information request sent to about 900 Annex 1 firms. Together, the two actions show a regulator investing in tomorrow’s detection tools while acting firmly on today’s basic control failures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Global<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Regulatory Updates<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

FATF publishes principles to disrupt the money behind scam compounds<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The FATF published a report and a set of principles on financial flows linked to scam compounds, identifying virtual assets as a central laundering channel alongside payment services and money mule accounts. The principles call for cross-border cooperation to stop, trace, freeze and recover proceeds. The timing fits the picture seen in recent weeks, from the US-led West African takedown to the Southeast Asian scam centre sanctions push.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AML\/CFT & Financial Crime<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Block faces a proposed $764 million settlement, Webull is fined, and a Singapore arrest ties a global scam network to local controls<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Block disclosed an agreement in principle with the US Department of Justice on a three-year deferred prosecution agreement over alleged failure to maintain an effective AML programme under the Bank Secrecy Act. The proposed agreement would require about $764 million after credits for earlier regulatory resolutions, and it remains subject to a final agreement and court approval. FINRA fined Webull $4.2 million for failures in customer identity checks, suspicious activity monitoring and identity theft prevention. In Singapore, police arrested a suspect in the Prince Group probe, with more than S$700 million in assets seized or restricted. In the US, a Venezuelan national received a 12-year sentence for a conspiracy to launder more than $1 billion through bank accounts, cryptocurrency services and shell companies. The FBI also attributed the theft of more than $6 billion in virtual assets from Binance to North Korea and urged virtual asset service providers to block transactions involving linked addresses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sanctions: Iran’s shadow fleet, aviation sector and arms procurement in the crosshairs<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US Treasury sanctioned an India-based network accused of supplying false flags and maritime certifications to vessels carrying Iranian petroleum, as well as a T\u00fcrkiye-based aviation services company accused of supporting Iran’s aviation sector. Separately, the State Department designated two people and one entity over alleged efforts to help Iran obtain man-portable air-defence systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What This Means for Your Compliance Program<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The thread running through this week is that the rules are getting specific. The CBN did not just signal intent on stablecoins, it set capital figures, ruled out a standalone P2P licence and made BVN matching a hard requirement. The FATF set principles for tracing scam proceeds, the FCA restricted lenders with weak controls, and US regulators extracted large settlements from payments firms whose AML programmes did not keep up with growth. Institutions that touch digital assets, remittances or fast-growing customer bases should expect these standards to be tested in practice, not just on paper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If your team wants a second look at how your onboarding, identity matching and screening would meet these expectations, that is worth a conversation. Reach out to Probe Compliance at probecompliance.com\/contact<\/a> to see how institutions across Nigeria, the UK, South Africa, Ghana, and Kenya are closing that gap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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. Compliance Watch pulls together what actually matters from the past week, organized by region, so your team can walk into Monday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[110,121],"tags":[12,36,8,32,11,116,44,54,130,132,41,10,129,43,131],"class_list":["post-1797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cbn","category-compliance-watch","tag-aml","tag-aml-nigeria","tag-cbn","tag-cft","tag-compliance","tag-compliance-watch","tag-efcc","tag-fatf","tag-fbi","tag-fca","tag-nfiu","tag-nigeria","tag-ofac","tag-sec","tag-stablecoin"],"blocksy_meta":[],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/blog.probecompliance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/compliance-watch-2.jpg",1024,536,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/blog.probecompliance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/compliance-watch-2.jpg",1024,536,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/blog.probecompliance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/compliance-watch-2.jpg",1024,536,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/blog.probecompliance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/compliance-watch-2-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/blog.probecompliance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/compliance-watch-2-300x157.jpg",300,157,true],"large":["https:\/\/blog.probecompliance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/compliance-watch-2.jpg",1024,536,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/blog.probecompliance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/compliance-watch-2.jpg",1024,536,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/blog.probecompliance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/compliance-watch-2.jpg",1024,536,false]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Temidayo Akinuli","author_link":"https:\/\/blog.probecompliance.com\/author\/takinuli\/"},"rttpg_comment":1,"rttpg_category":"CBN<\/a> Compliance Watch<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"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. Compliance Watch pulls together what actually matters from the past week, organized by region, so your team can walk into Monday…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.probecompliance.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.probecompliance.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.probecompliance.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.probecompliance.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.probecompliance.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1797"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.probecompliance.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1799,"href":"https:\/\/blog.probecompliance.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1797\/revisions\/1799"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.probecompliance.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.probecompliance.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.probecompliance.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.probecompliance.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}