Mozambique: Central bank fines nine financial institutions for violating regulations

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Mozambique: Central bank fines nine financial institutions for violating regulations

1:45 CAT | 07 Feb 2025

File photo: Banco de Moçambique

The Bank of Mozambique has fined nine credit institutions and financial companies for violating prudential regulations, rules on preventing and combating money laundering and terrorist financing, foreign exchange regulations and consumer protection regulations for financial products and services.

The institutions in question are Multicâmbios, E-Mola, Banco Letshego, Banco Société Générale Moçambique, Banco Comercial e de Investimentos, Absa Bank Moçambique, Moza Banco, First National Bank and Ecobank Moçambique.

Of the nine financial institutions, E-Mola and the Banco Comercial e de Investimentos (BCI) have been fined for the most infractions between December 2023 and December 2024, and will have to pay fines of more than 40 million meticais.

Fines and violations

According to the Bank of Mozambique, Multicâmbios will have to pay 1,251,692.40 MT for failing to register foreign exchange transactions and for not having internal control standards.

E-Mola was fined 44,979,782.00 MT for infractions including inadequate constitution of the board of directors and working committees; failure to establish policies and procedures to address risks related to the prevention and combating of money laundering and financing of terrorism; failure to report cash transactions above thresholds; lack of action plans to resolve the causes of customer complaints and failure to comply with the deadline for handling complaints); inadequate creation and management of electronic money in circulation; provision of electronic payment products and services without prior notification to the Bank of Mozambique; and carrying out transactions outside the single national electronic payments network.

Banco Letshego has been fined 1,434,085.00 MT for violations including failure to comply with the deadline for responding to notifications from the BM, within the scope of customer complaints processes and providing false information likely to lead to erroneous conclusions about compliance with the duty to respond to notifications from the BM in the context of complaints handling.

Banco Société Générale Moçambique has been fined 4,015,438.00 MT for failing to comply with the deadline for responding to notifications from the BM, within the scope of customer complaints processes.

The Banco Comercial e de Investimentos will have to pay more than 44 million meticais for infractions including failure to comply with the deadline for responding to notifications from the BM, within the scope of customer complaints processes; contracting over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives without authorization from the BM; failure to register and report OTC derivatives; breach of the duty to apply enhanced due diligence measures when establishing a business relationship with a PEP (politically exposed person) client; breach of the duty to apply enhanced measures proportionate to the risks in relation to transactions carried out in a bank account, among others.

Absa Bank Mozambique has been fined more than 3 million meticais for contracting of OTC derivatives without authorization from the BM (ALC and BM Notice); failure to register and report OTC derivatives (ALC and BM Notice); violation of the general duty of verification and information when carrying out foreign exchange transactions (ALC and BM Notice); and violation of the registration duty.

Moza Banco must pay 900,000.00 MT for violating the general duty of verification and information when carrying out foreign exchange transactions. First National Bank must also pay the same amount for the same infraction.

Ecobank Moçambique has been fined 894,066.00 MT for violating the regulatory deadline for submitting the report and accounts for the 2023 financial year to the BM.

All fines refer to the period December 2023 to December 2024.

Source: O País