Fintech and Money Laundering in Nigeria: Moderating Effect of Financial Regulations and Literacy

SPARC 2022 Poster Number 15

  

The main aim of the study is to explores the relationships between Financial Technology (Fintech), money laundering, and the moderating effect of financial regulation and financial literacy on financial technology and money laundering nexus. Financial technology has greatly improved the speed of settlement, reduced regulatory burden, and promoted cross-border payment and settlement. It is argued that criminals could exploit the security deficiencies of financial technology to launder illicit funds, especially, in countries with weak regulatory framework and low financial literacy. The objectives of the research are.

1. To examine the relationship between Financial Technology (Fintech) and money laundering in Nigeria. 

2. To investigate the moderating effect of financial regulations on the relationship between Fintech and money laundering in Nigeria, and 

3. To examine the moderating effect of financial literacy on the relationship between financial technology and money laundering. 

Technological determinism theory will be deployed as underpinning theory. The subjects of the research would be all the population of the users of fintech in Nigeria which is estimated to be 32,363,047. The data will be analyzed through regression with the use of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22.0 and the Smart Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling (Smart PLS-SEM) version 3.0. The findings of the study will serve as a springboard for designing policies to mitigate the emerging risks of financial technology and promote the stability of the financial system. The study contributes to the increasing literature on the emerging risks of financial technology.