(Business in Cameroon) - As from 1st December 2018, all interbank payment transactions and operations carried out within the CEMAC zone with cards or electronic wallets issued by an institution operating in the sub-region must be cleared and settled in CFA franc. This is one of the new rules introduced by the central bank Beac.

This shall apply to transfers and transactions via an interoperable payment system or platform, operating in CEMAC and having Beac as bank or settlement agent.

Beac said any offender will face sanctions. “Any operator of an electronic payment system or platform which has not been brought into compliance shall be subject to a penalty payment of CFA2,000 per day of delay, by card or by electronic wallet in circulation issued by a member or participant of its network”, according to Article 16 of the new Central Bank Instruction.

Article 17 provides for a penalty equal to 150% of the amount to be collected on the transaction cleared and settled in violation of the law, against the issuer of the payment instrument who generates the transaction irregularly cleared and settled.

The penalty payments and late payment penalties provided by Article 18 shall be imposed and recovered by the payment system operator by automatically debiting the issuing institution's account at the Beac and remitted monthly to the operator of the interoperable electronic payment system with the Beac as its bank or settlement agent. 

Finally, Article 19 stipulates that periodic penalty payments and penalties recovered and paid to the operator of the interoperable electronic payment system shall be allocated to support actions to promote and develop the network or networks for accepting electronic payment by card and electronic wallet.

S.A