👨🏿‍🚀TechCabal Daily – Compliance hires are hot commodity

In partnership with Lire en Français اقرأ هذا باللغة العربية Welcome to November! On Thursday, a scientist demonstrated how to teach a computer to “smell” by replicating the scent of an orchid. Now, Meta is developing a robot hand that can “feel” touch. Unlike most devices, this robot hand can sense and measure tiny shifts in pressure from any direction on its fingertip, capturing how it deforms when pressed, tapped, or moved across surfaces. This advanced sense of touch could help scientists create more realistic and responsive robots. It’s increasingly looking like light years of robo-technology happening in 2024 already. In other news, OpenAI launched ChatGPT search, a feature that provides users with “timely answers” by searching for information online. Nigerian fintechs ramp up compliance hiring CBN wants banks to seek approval before changing CBA Kenya’s largest bank KCB completes moving customer data offline Zenith Bank joins the trillion-naira club Funding Tracker World Wide Web 3 Jobs Banking Compliance officers are the new gold in Nigeria Image Source: Google After the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) paused new account openings in April, Kuda Bank, Moniepoint, OPay, and Palmpay have been on a hiring spree, poaching fraud monitoring and compliance analysts from banks and rivals to beef up their compliance and fraud teams. Moniepoint has expanded its transaction monitoring team by five and hired at least a dozen compliance employees since May. They also poached two seasoned pros from OPay and another from Flutterwave.  OPay also grew its legal team, and Palmpay welcomed six compliance staff, including a senior manager with over a decade at Union Bank. Kuda has onboarded three compliance analysts and a manager from the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement Scheme (NIBSS).  These hirings mark a shift from the industry’s previous stance, where compliance was often seen as a pesky hurdle to rapid growth. Before the ban, fintechs chased swift customer acquisition, sometimes at the expense of stringent Know Your Customer (KYC) protocols.  But with the CBN’s crackdown, which came with a stern warning about KYC measures, the fintechs have hired at least thirty compliance staff between them to increase how they monitor transactions and manage customers. “The central bank wants fintechs to be more compliant, and they need more hands to make that happen,” someone familiar with the hiring patterns of the fintechs told TechCabal.  It’s not just about appeasing regulators; investors are also keen on ensuring their crown jewels are not wading into murky regulatory waters. Will this compliance overdrive be enough to reduce fraud and appease regulators? Only time—and perhaps a few more hires—will tell. For now, compliance officers are the new must-have employees in Nigeria’s fintech industry. Read Moniepoint’s Case Study on Funding Women After losing their mother, Azeezat and her siblings struggled to keep Olaiya Foods afloat. Now, with Moniepoint, they’re transforming Nigeria’s local buka scene. Click here for a deep dive into how Moniepoint is helping her and other women entrepreneurs overcome their funding challenges. Banking CBN wants banks to seek approval before changing core banking application CBN chief Olayemi Cardoso/Image Source: Premium Times Nigeria If you are a bank customer in Nigeria, the last couple of months have been tough. Bank apps have struggled with service disruption and other channels inaccessible. Several banks coincidentally decided to change their core banking software around the same time.  While these technological changes are necessary, they are badly timed for millions of customers. Depending on who you ask, switching a core banking software is hard and could negatively impact customers—as we have seen since the second half of 2024. Yet, there is a need to regulate the process to protect customers who have to grapple with downtimes and service disruptions.  Unsurprisingly, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has now stepped in. Two people familiar with the matter told TechCabal that the CBN has directed commercial banks to get regulatory approval before changing their core banking software. The CBN has a responsibility to protect customers as the regulator, leaving many to wonder why it took so long before it intervened. Some have also questioned why the regulator didn’t fine the banks involved.  Given how the last few months have been, the directive is a much-needed succour for customers. Interesting days ahead. Issue USD and Euro accounts with Fincra Whether you run an online marketplace, a remittance fintech, a payroll, a freelance platform or a cross-border payment app, Fincra’s multicurrency account API allows you to instantly create accounts in USD and EUR for customers without the stress of setting up a local account. Get started today. Banking Kenya’s KCB completes customer data transfer to an off-site facility Image Source: Bloomberg Kenya’s largest bank, KCB Group, has officially completed its data migration to iColo, a local data centre. This strategic move, which took two years to finalise, aims to reduce operational costs by shifting its data, including account and transaction details, from its on-premise infrastructure to iColo’s facilities in Karen and Gigiri, Nairobi. While KCB didn’t share specific cost savings projections, industry experts believe that colocation offers a more cost-effective solution compared to building and maintaining an independent data centre. By sharing common resources, banks can achieve economies of scale. KCB isn’t alone in this trend. Other Kenyan banks, such as Equity Bank and NCBA, have also adopted colocation strategies to manage costs. Additionally, Kenyan banks are actively upgrading their core banking applications to enhance efficiency and customer experience. Stanbic Bank recently upgraded its Temenos platform, while KCB has updated its Temenos system for its Rwandan operations and uses Sopra for its digital banking services. Introducing Paystack Transfers in Kenya Paystack merchants in Kenya can now send single and bulk transfers to any Kenyan bank or MPESA account (including customer wallets, Paybills, and Tills) Learn more → Banking Zenith Bank joins the trillion-naira club Image Source: Google Zenith Bank reported a record-breaking pre-tax profit of ₦1 trillion ($609 million) for the first nine months of 2024, marking a 98.57% increase from the ₦505 billion ($307 million) the bank reported