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China, Nigeria Announce Joint Agreement To Tackle Money Laundering
China and Nigeria have entered into a wide-ranging strategic partnership that includes new agreements to jointly tackle money laundering while promoting trade in local currencies.
Last week, Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu met with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).
The two leaders discussed a range of issues and signed a series of agreements and memorandums of understanding (MoUs).
As per a joint statement, the two countries agreed to cooperate on financial intelligence sharing and on anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) issues.
China agreed to support Nigeria’s efforts to safeguard its financial and foreign exchange markets and to crack down on financial crimes.
The two countries also agreed to encourage bilateral and regional cooperation in the form of local currency swaps to facilitate more efficient trade and investment.
In February 2023, Nigeria was placed on the list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), also known as the greylist.
AI A Double-Edged Sword For Cybercrime, Warns Czech Banking Association
Cyber fraud is surging in the Czech Republic, with a 37 percent increase in attacks on bank customers in the first seven months of 2024 compared with the same period last year, according to the Czech Banking Association (CBA).
More than 49,000 clients were targeted, resulting in financial damages of CZK845m ($37m), a 9 percent rise year-on-year.
The trade association said that banks in the country have managed to save more than CZK4bn through advanced fraud detection systems, increasingly relying on AI to thwart cyber threats.
However, cybercriminals are also using AI to craft sophisticated scams, including deep fakes and phishing attacks, which has made it more challenging to take preventive action.
"AI is becoming an increasingly important tool that helps us quickly and efficiently identify threats and minimise their impact," said Jan Juchelka, president of the Czech Banking Association.
"Unfortunately, however, it is increasingly abused by e-scammers who use it to create increasingly sophisticated frauds."
