Financial exclusion and Covid-19: Implications for AML regulation, with reference to Nigeria

This paper considers the current status of the global anti-money laundering (AML) and counter terrorist financing (CFT) regime prescribed by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and, in particular, explores the effects the global pandemic is having on certain rules. By way of example, we take financial inclusion/exclusion and examine this in the context of Nigeria. We argue that with the risks Covid-19 presents to the global AML framework in terms of momentum, the crisis demonstrates pivotal societal nuances which undermine developing countries’ abilities to comply with international standards.