Making a Case for Governance in Combatting and Managing Financial Crimes

Description

ABSTRACT

Making a Case for Governance in Combatting and Managing Financial Crimes

Konyinsola Ajayi SAN*, Ayodeji Arowolo** and Oluwatosin Phillips***

Financial crimes are comparable to the Ebola virus, incubating quietly and undetected, yet spreading rapidly towards the ultimate destruction of its victims – usually banks and other financial institutions. In the combat against financial crimes, a lot of attention has been paid to external factors and players such as criminals who may not be remotely connected to the affected financial institutions, but whose actions have affected the institutions gruesomely. This paper suggests that it is time to look inwards at the corporate governance structure of financial institutions with a view to dealing financial crimes a once and for all blow. In comparing the treatment of medical diseases to the fight against financial crimes, the paper proposes a prophylactic rather than a curative approach in dealing with poor governance which is the greatest source of banking failure.

INTRODUCTION
The Ebola scare, which is fast outpacing spirited efforts to contain it, may be new, but panic over the plague – and the cultural ‘fetishization’ of it – goes back centuries. The outbreak of the plague in West Africa is the World’s deadliest to date with case fatality rates ranging between 25% – 90%. Reports from the World Health Organization indeed show that more than 11,000 people have died
from the virus in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.

Keywords: Financial Crimes, Corporate Governance, Financial Institutions, Banks.

* Professor of Law, and Managing Partner, Olaniwun Ajayi LP, Lagos, Nigeria.
** Formerly Associate at Olaniwun Ajayi LP, Legal Counsel British American Tobacco Limited.
*** Formerly Associate at Olaniwun Ajayi LP. An initial draft of this paper was delivered at the 8th Annual Banking and Finance Conference of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria themed “Positioning Nigeria’s Payment Systems for Global Competitiveness”.

THE GRAVITAS REVIEW OF BUSINESS & PROPERTY LAW VOL.10 NO.3