Bloc Microfinance Bank Receives Approval-in-Principle From CBN
Bloc Microfinance Bank (Bloc MFB), a subsidiary of BlocHQ Limited, has received an approval-in-principle from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
This approval-in-principle from Nigeria’s Apex Bank will allow Bloc MFB to be incorporated with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), and secure its MFB license.
With an MFB license, Bloc’s banking as a service infrastructure will be able to issue proprietary virtual account numbers with advanced features for several use cases and improve how users experience transfers in and out of their virtual bank accounts, allowing them to extend an all-improved banking experience to their customers.
All virtual bank accounts owned by Bloc MFB will be deposit-insured by Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation and the company have assured that it will continue to work closely with the CBN and other regulatory authorities to ensure that they are fully compliant every step of the way.
Commenting on the approval-in-principle received from the CBN, CEO and Founder of Bloc MFB, Edmund Olotu said,
“In our commitment to compliance and delivering top-tier banking and infrastructure services, Bloc worked with the regulatory authorities to acquire its banking license via Bloc Microfinance Bank. This milestone indicates that we have met all regulatory requirements and received the green light from the CBN to proceed with the necessary operations for finalizing the license acquisition process.
“All virtual bank accounts owned by Bloc MFB will be deposit-insured by the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation and we’ll continue to work closely with the CBN and other regulatory authorities to ensure that we are fully compliant every step of the way. This sets the right tone for Bloc as a financial technology company and puts us on our path to global success.
“Despite this achievement, we will continue to nurture our existing partnerships with our tier-1 partner banks. This gives startups and engineering teams more options when integrating our virtual account services into their businesses. As we conclude this process, we’ll communicate any changes/ improvements we make to our products and services”.
Since January 2021, Bloc has offered its customers proprietary banking as a service infrastructure, allowing them to plug and play banking and payment services into their applications.
The company has developed features for non-technical teams to experience everything they could do with the Bloc API, and in August this year, it launched a business banking product.
Aside from banking and payment services, Bloc will offer unlimited sub-accounts and debit cards to customers to help them manage their expenses and gain more oversight over their internal financial operations.
It will also provide POS Terminals for agency banking and in-person payments via card or bank transfer, rebuilt templates, and no-code tools that help businesses offer banking services (bank accounts and debit cards) to their customers, and staff, amongst others.
