Banks will face intensified scrutiny after Deposit Money Banks lodged the vast bulk of Suspicious Transaction Reports with the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit in 2025. The NFIU’s 2025 Annual Report shows reporting entities submitted 42,082 Suspicious Transaction Reports, 41,716,214 Currency Transaction Reports and 10,513 Suspicious Activity Reports during the year.
Deposit Money Banks produced 38,715 STRs, roughly 92 per cent of filings from all sectors. Other Financial Institutions filed 2,185 STRs, Designated Non‑Financial Businesses and Professions accounted for 1,029, capital market and insurance operators submitted 104, and Virtual Asset Service Providers recorded 49.
Banks also dominated Suspicious Activity Reports, contributing 8,313 of the 10,513 SARs recorded in 2025. Other Financial Institutions filed 1,816 SARs, capital market and insurance firms submitted 295, Virtual Asset Service Providers lodged 89, and the DNFBP sector recorded no SARs for the year.
Threshold-based reporting remained large in scale, with 41,716,214 CTRs during 2025. Deposit Money Banks accounted for 37,214,139 of those filings, about 89.2 per cent of the total. Other Financial Institutions submitted 4,212,466 CTRs, capital market and insurance participants contributed 289,296, and VASPs filed 313.
The NFIU reminded stakeholders that Section 11 of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act requires reporting of transactions above N5m for individuals and N10m for legal entities within seven days, and that Section 3(1) mandates reporting of incoming and outgoing transfers over $10,000 within 24 hours. The agency said its framework covers threshold-based and suspicious reporting and that it works with the Central Bank of Nigeria, National Insurance Commission, Securities and Exchange Commission and the Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering to enforce compliance.
Quarterly trends show banks steadily increased STR submissions from 9,134 in the first quarter to 10,032 in the fourth. Currency Transaction Reports from Deposit Money Banks rose from 7,040,493 in Q1 to 11,091,107 in Q4. Other Financial Institutions reported STRs of 451, 432, 719 and 583 across the four quarters.
Virtual Asset Service Providers showed limited but rising engagement during the year. VASPs reported no STRs in the first half of 2025, then filed 17 in Q3 and 32 in Q4. VASP SARs were 28, 12, 24 and 25 across Q1 to Q4, while their CTR filings appeared in H2, with 103 reports in Q3 and 210 in Q4.
Reporting on Politically Exposed Persons also surged, with 28,133,909 PEP-related reports for 2025. Deposit Money Banks recorded 7,263,557 PEP filings in Q1, 5,658,079 in Q2, 6,235,585 in Q3 and 8,225,572 in Q4. Other Financial Institutions’ PEP reports rose from 12 in Q1 to 617,286 in Q4. Capital market and insurance entities submitted 28,561 PEP reports, while VASPs recorded none.
The NFIU’s Designated Non‑Financial Businesses and Professions Division carried out joint on-site examinations of 29 reporting entities in the Federal Capital Territory, drawn from real estate, casinos, precious metals and stones dealing, and consultancy. The exercise produced 20 new registrations on the RapidAML portal, subscriptions to NIGSAC and the submission of 1,029 STRs.
Despite the large volumes of CTRs and PEP disclosures, STRs and SARs fell sharply year on year. STR filings dropped by 40,061, from 82,143 in 2024 to 42,082 in 2025, a decline of about 48.8 per cent. Suspicious Activity Reports fell by 12,851, from 23,364 to 10,513, a reduction of roughly 55 per cent. The contrast between rising threshold-based and PEP disclosures and falling suspicious reports will shape regulatory priorities and scrutiny in the months ahead.
