Anti-Money Laundering Policy and its Effects on Bank Performance in Nigeria

This study seeks to review the role of anti-money laundering policy in Nigerian banking sector with its attendance effects on performance. Three banks in Lagos State (South Western Nigeria) were used for the study. The correlation result indicates the existence of a strong positive relationship between banks performance and adoption of sound money laundering policy with a value of 0.881. The coefficient of determination also show a value of 0.775, which implies that anti-money laundering policy actually explain and account for about 77.5% of the nature of banks performance in the economy. This result is due to the fact that banks do not need to serve as a channel for illicit monetary activities before they can post a meaningful performance in the industry. Hence, money laundering has negative consequences on the economy which include loss of revenue to the government, worsens criminal rate in the society, and threatens the political stability and internal security of a nation.