If you keep your money in a fintech app instead of a traditional bank, a bill Nigeria’s Senate passed on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026, is about you. The Senate fintech bill, SB. 959, would let the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) label the biggest fintech companies and other non-bank financial firms as “Systemically Important Institutions” and watch them much more closely. It is not law yet, and nothing changes in your app today.
The short version
The Senate has passed a bill that would give the CBN extra power over the fintechs that have grown big enough to shake the financial system if they fail. More steps remain before it becomes law.
- SB. 959 amends the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act of 2020, and the Senate passed it on third reading on Nov. 10, 2026.
- The CBN would decide which fintechs and non-bank financial institutions count as systemically important, based on their transaction volumes, customer base and links to the rest of the financial system.
- Designated firms would face regular stress tests, stricter cybersecurity and governance rules, more reporting and direct CBN access to their operating systems.
- The CBN would keep an official public register of designated firms, and the owners behind them would have to be disclosed.
- The bill does not name any company, and the penalties for breaking the rules have not been made public.
What the Senate fintech bill does
The full name is long: a bill to amend the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act, No. 5 of 2020, to provide for the designation, registration and enhanced supervision of Systemically Important Institutions. According to the National Assembly Library Trust Fund, which reports for the National Assembly, the bill was sponsored by Senator Adetokunbo Abiru (Lagos East), who chairs the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions, with members of his committee.
The Senate considered it clause by clause as a Committee of the Whole, with Senate President Godswill Akpabio presiding, and passed it on third reading. A public hearing took place on March 4, 2026. At that hearing, BusinessDay reported, Senator Abiru argued against creating a separate fintech regulator, saying a new agency would duplicate functions. The bill builds on the CBN’s existing powers instead.
Under the bill, the CBN would get clear authority to identify, designate and register qualifying fintechs and non-bank financial institutions as Systemically Important Institutions. Once a firm is on that list, the bill would let the CBN:
- run regular stress tests and data-integrity checks on it
- require it to report to the regulator on a fixed schedule
- get direct supervisory access to its operating systems
- hold it to strict rules on corporate governance, cybersecurity, operational resilience and technology risk
- make it disclose who really owns it, and punish it if it does not follow the rules
The Trust Fund’s report says stakeholders at the hearing endorsed the bill and pushed for risk-based supervision, coordination between agencies and consumer protection. It lists the CBN, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Ministry of Finance Incorporated among those that took part.
What it could change for your money app
In plain terms: the biggest apps would be checked more like banks. If the app you use for transfers, savings or loans is designated, the CBN would be testing whether it can survive a shock, whether its systems are secure and whether its data adds up. If an outage or a hack hits a designated app, it would be answering to a regulator that already has eyes inside its systems.
The public register is the part you can use. Once it exists, you would be able to check whether your app is on the list of firms the CBN watches most closely, and the ownership rules mean you would know who stands behind it.
What we do not know yet: the published details do not name any company, and they do not say exactly how big a firm has to be before the CBN designates it. That will be the CBN’s call.
What happens next
A bill passed by the Senate is not yet law. In Nigeria’s process, the House of Representatives also has to pass it, and the President has to sign it. After that, the CBN would still need to set out exactly how it measures which firms are big enough to be designated. We will update this story as each step happens.
This comes on top of other new rules for digital money this month. If you trade crypto or use peer-to-peer platforms, read what the CBN’s new crypto rules mean for your name and BVN.
What to do now
You do not need to move your money because of this bill. These steps protect you whatever happens in the National Assembly:
- Turn on every security setting your app offers, including a transaction PIN that is different from your phone unlock code.
- Lock your SIM against swaps. Our guide shows how to protect mobile money from a SIM swap.
- Do not keep all your money in one app. If an app goes down for a day, you still need to pay for things.
- If you are not sure how your wallet differs from a bank account, here is how mobile money apps work.
