Angolan Central Bank slaps financial institutions with US$575,000 in penalties for infractions

In the second quarter of 2023, the Angolan central bank sanctioned both banking and non-banking financial institutions for various infractions, resulting in a total amount of 473.5 million kwanzas (US$575,000) in penalties.

The sanctions were imposed due to actions such as providing false information to the supervisory body.

The National Bank of Angola (BNA) reported that a total of 84 sanctioning proceedings were concluded during this period, with 50 of them categorized as “summary proceedings.”

Among the cases evaluated, 55 were related to banking financial institutions, while 29 involved non-banking financial institutions.

The infractions primarily focused on behavioral and prudential matters, with significant occurrences in the registration and exchange rate domains.

Between April 1 and June 30 of the current year, the recorded prudential infractions for banking financial institutions included non-compliance with periodic contributions to the Deposit Guarantee Fund and failure to report disbursed credit.

Other infractions pertained to cybersecurity procedures, corporate security rules, foreign exchange position regulations, and special registration requirements.

Behavioral infractions encompassed false reporting to the supervisory body, non-compliance with consumer protection procedures for financial products and services, and violations of specific determinations by the regulator.

In the foreign exchange domain, the central bank identified non-compliance with foreign currency transfer operations, failure to report executed foreign exchange transactions, and transgressions related to foreign exchange regulations.

Non-banking financial institutions were found to have breached reporting obligations for foreign exchange transactions, money laundering prevention rules, annual report and accounts submissions, as well as quarterly balance sheet reporting.

In total, 32 sanctions were applied, including three admonitions and 29 financial penalties, resulting in a cumulative sum of 473.5 million kwanzas.