What this page covers

17 returns. The CBN does not publish one single consolidated list of every periodic return it collects; this file is anchored on the Bank's own sector guideline pages (Banking Supervision Guidelines, Other Financial Institutions Supervision Circulars, the Micro Finance Bank Returns Guide, Financial Policy and Regulation Guidelines, and the AML/CFT Circulars page), each of which loads its list of documents from a JSON data file on the same host (for example /api/GetBSDGuidelines), and on the guidelines and circulars those pages link. By population, banks first: 8 returns for commercial, merchant and non-interest banks, called Deposit Money Banks (capital adequacy ratio, leverage ratio, liquidity coverage ratio, liquidity monitoring tools, large exposures, the internal liquidity adequacy assessment process report, the internal capital adequacy assessment process report, and Pillar 3 public disclosures), all from the CBN's September 2021 Basel III guideline suite; 2 for microfinance banks (a monthly return and annual audited financial statements); 2 for primary mortgage banks (a monthly return and annual audited financial statements); 3 for bureaux de change (daily returns, monthly returns and annual audited financial statements); 1 for Payment Service Banks (a quarterly financial-inclusion return); and 1 cross-sector anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorist-financing return filed monthly with the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit. Left out: finance companies, credit bureaux and development finance institutions (these are confirmed, from circulars on late rendition, to file monthly returns through the same FinA application, but no named list of their returns was read); Trade and Exchange returns, which continued on the older e-FASS system after prudential returns moved to FinA in October 2016, and were not examined; payment system returns beyond the PSB financial-inclusion return (for example for mobile money operators, switching companies and e-money issuers); the Cash Reserve Requirement debit mechanics (the 2024 Framework Implementation Guidelines is a scanned PDF with no extractable text); the Credit Risk Management System's reporting of credit facilities of N1 million and above; and the detailed forms and thresholds for Suspicious Transaction Reports and Currency Transaction Reports (the two CBN circulars specifically on these are scanned PDFs with no extractable text). One-off licensing, application and notification forms, and any return that would require requesting a login or submission portal, are also left out. Source

How firms file

FinA (Financial Analysis application)
The CBN's electronic regulatory returns application. Banks and other financial institutions (including microfinance banks, primary mortgage banks and bureaux de change) submit most prudential and statutory returns through it. It replaced e-FASS for prudential returns with effect from 3 October 2016; its own login page was not requested, following the rule never to request submission portals. Source
e-FASS (Electronic Financial Analysis and Surveillance System)
The CBN's earlier electronic returns system. Discontinued for prudential returns from 3 October 2016, but the rendition of Trade and Exchange-related returns continues on it 'until further notice'. Source
FIFX (Financial Institutions Foreign Exchange Reporting System)
The system bureaux de change use to render their daily and monthly Sources of Funds, Customer Information, Forex Sales to End Users, and Forex Sales and Purchases returns. Source

The returns (17)

Plain name first, the CBN's code in brackets. Each return has its own page: what it is for, who files it, the deadline, the templates, the validation rules, the documents and the sources.

Return	Group	How often	Format	Status
Capital adequacy ratio (CAR)	Group: Capital	How often: Monthly	Format: Excel, Other	In force
Leverage ratio (LeR)	Group: Capital	How often: Monthly	Format: Other	In force
Liquidity coverage ratio (LCR)	Group: Liquidity	How often: Monthly	Format: Other	In force
Liquidity monitoring tools (LMT)	Group: Liquidity	How often: Monthly	Format: Other	In force
Large exposures (LEX)	Group: Credit risk	How often: Monthly	Format: Other	In force
Internal liquidity adequacy assessment process report (ILAAP)	Group: Liquidity	How often: Every six months	Format: Other	In force
Internal capital adequacy assessment process report (ICAAP)	Group: Capital	How often: Yearly	Format: Other	In force
Pillar 3 public disclosures	Group: Capital	How often: Varies	Format: Other	In force
Monthly return (Master File)	Group: Financial statements	How often: Monthly	Format: Excel	In force
Annual audited financial statements (AFS)	Group: Financial statements	How often: Yearly	Format: Other	In force
Monthly return (PMB Monthly Returns)	Group: Financial statements	How often: Monthly	Format: Other	In force
Annual audited financial statements (AFS)	Group: Financial statements	How often: Yearly	Format: Other	In force
Daily foreign exchange and financial position returns (BDC Daily Returns)	Group: Foreign exchange	How often: Daily	Format: Other	In force
Monthly foreign exchange and financial position returns (BDC Monthly Returns)	Group: Foreign exchange	How often: Monthly	Format: Other	In force
Annual audited financial statements (BDC AFS)	Group: Financial statements	How often: Yearly	Format: Other	In force
Financial inclusion return	Group: Conduct	How often: Quarterly	Format: Other	In force
Anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing return (AML/CFT Return)	Group: Conduct	How often: Monthly	Format: Other	In force

Download this list: CBN returns (CSV) or everything on this page (JSON), free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 with the credit line on the library page.

Data the CBN publishes from the returns

Financial Stability Report
Added up across firms · PDF
Published twice a year (June and December editions). Gives industry-wide prudential indicators, including the capital adequacy ratio, a 'Liquidity Ratio (LR)' and the non-performing loans ratio, for the banking sector and selected sub-sectors. The report does not name which return each figure comes from; the returns listed here are matched by subject only. Source
From: CAR, LCR
Reuse: The regulator's general licence terms apply (see the top-level licence block); no separate reuse terms were found for this report.

Reuse terms for the CBN's documents

Central Bank of Nigeria: Legal Disclaimer, checked 13 November 2026. In the CBN's words:

It is permitted to copy material from this Internet address - either electronically or in paper form - provided that CBN is stated expressly as the source. It is however, not permitted to amend or distort the contents of the materials.

Can others share copies?: Allowed with conditions.
Conditions: Credit: state the CBN expressly as the source. Do not amend or distort the material. Links: a link must go directly to the CBN's own address with the CBN's whole web environment kept (never framed), especially links from business sites or for promotion. Banknotes have their own reproduction rules. Logos: nothing stated; the CBN logo is not used.
What the library does: Links each document on the regulator's own site, with its size and SHA-256 fingerprint so a change can be spotted. Documents are never hosted on line4.ai.

Notice the CBN's terms ask for: Source: Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), https://www.cbn.gov.ng. Documents are linked on the regulator's own site, not hosted here. The plain-English summaries are Line4's own; the CBN does not endorse this library.

What could not be verified

Said plainly, so nobody relies on a fact the sources do not give.

The Cash Reserve Requirement (CRR) Framework Implementation Guidelines (February 2024), listed on the Banking Supervision Guidelines page, is a scanned image PDF with no extractable text (pdftotext returns an empty body), so its reporting requirements, if any, could not be read.
Two scanned PDF circulars specifically on AML/CFT matters ('RE: Rendition of AML/CFT Returns to CBN', 24 December 2013, and a 2013 letter on Suspicious Transaction Reports and Currency Transaction Reports) have no extractable text; the facts for the AML/CFT return in this file come instead from the clause on AML/CFT returns in the Primary Mortgage Bank and Microfinance Bank guidelines, which does not name every population that must file it.
The Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA), 2020, as hosted at the URL used for its legal_basis citations, is a scanned or image-only PDF with no extractable text, so its section numbering (for example section 58(2)(b) on the rendition of returns) could not be verified directly from the Act; it is quoted as cited by the guidelines that reference it.
Two similarly-named Bureaux De Change guideline documents are both listed on the Financial Policy and Regulation Guidelines page, dated 23 February 2024 and 22 May 2024; it is not stated on the pages read why both are published, or whether the February version was a draft. The later, 22 May 2024 version is used as the current guideline in this file.
Letters dated 5 March 2024 to Development Finance Institutions, Primary Mortgage Banks and Microfinance Banks on 'Late and Non-Rendition of Statutory Monthly Returns to the Central Bank of Nigeria through the FinA Application' confirm Development Finance Institutions also file monthly returns through FinA, but no page naming their specific returns was read, so no Development Finance Institution return is recorded in this file.
No page was found naming the specific periodic returns (if any) collected from finance companies or credit bureaux; the Other Financial Institutions Supervision Circulars page lists their licensing guidelines but no dedicated returns guide of the kind published for microfinance banks.
No separate downloadable workbook or blank form was found for the 35 schedules of the Primary Mortgage Bank monthly return; they are named only in Annexure 2 of the 2011 Guidelines, unlike the Microfinance Bank monthly return, for which a real published Excel template (OFID-05-2009.XLS) was found and read.
The 'Micro Finance Bank Returns Guide' page's own circular 'MFB Monthly Online Rendition Of Returns To CBN Via FinA System' (OFISD-01-2011, and a 2014 reissue with the same title) is a scanned PDF with no extractable text; the FinA rendition process for microfinance banks is described instead from a 2014 training document ('Instructions and Standards') hosted on the same page.
Payment system returns beyond the Payment Service Bank financial-inclusion return (for example for mobile money operators, switching companies and e-money issuers) were not examined; no explicit returns table of the kind found for bureaux de change was located on the Payments System Guidelines or Financial Policy and Regulation Guidelines pages for these other payment system participant types.
The deadline for the Payment Service Bank quarterly financial-inclusion return is not stated on the pages read; the Guideline only says such other returns may be required 'in such format and frequency as the CBN may prescribe'.
The deadline for the Large Exposures (LEX) return, beyond 'monthly', is not stated on the pages read.
Banks file daily, monthly, quarterly and semi-annual statutory returns through the FinA application; the CBN's April 2014 letter to all banks sets their deadlines (10:00 a.m. on the next working day for daily returns, the 5th day after month end for the others). No page read lists those returns by name or links their templates, so for banks only the Basel III returns, which have their own guidelines, are covered.

Sources

Knowing exactly what is collected, in what format and under which rules is the first step to real-time supervision. See every regulator in the regulatory returns library.

Line4's own text, and the way Line4 has collected and arranged these records, are free to reuse under CC BY 4.0. Please credit: “Source: Line4 regulatory submissions library (CC BY 4.0), https://www.line4.ai”. The facts themselves belong to no one. The regulators' document titles, template names, quoted terms and documents belong to them and are not covered by this licence: see CBN's reuse terms. This describes what regulators publish. It is not legal or regulatory advice: always rely on the regulator's own text. Not affiliated with or endorsed by any regulator.

Last checked 13 November 2026.

Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN): regulatory returns