Notice No. 02/2014 of 20 March on General Information Duties in the Provision of Financial Services and Products

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Published in the Official Gazette of Angola, I Series, No. 60, on March 28 NOTICE NO. 02/2014 of March 20 SUBJECT: GENERAL INFORMATION DUTIES IN THE PROVISION OF FINANCIAL SERVICES AND PRODUCTS

Considering the need to establish minimum information requirements that financial institutions must satisfy when providing and disclosing to the public the conditions under which they provide their services; Pursuant to the provisions set forth in paragraph f) of number 1 of Article 21 of Law No. 16/10 of July 15, the Law of the National Bank of Angola, combined with number 2 of Article 57 and number 1 of Article 58, both of Law No. 13/05 of September 30, the Law on Financial Institutions; DETERMINE:

Article 1 (Object and Scope) This Notice establishes the minimum information requirements regarding financial services and products that must be made available to the public by banking financial institutions supervised by the National Bank of Angola, with headquarters or branches in national territory.

Article 2 (Definitions) For the purposes of this Notice, it is understood that: a) Client: natural or legal person, group of natural or legal persons, public or private, affiliated or not, acting together, contractually linked to a financial institution to which it makes available products or services. b) Commissions: monetary payments due from clients by financial institutions as remuneration for services provided by them, or subcontracted to third parties, within the scope of their activity. c) Credit: act by which a financial institution, banking or non-banking, acting for consideration, places or promises to place funds at the disposal of a natural or legal person against the promise by the latter to repay them on the due date, or assumes, in its interest, an obligation by signature, such as a guarantee. d) Loan: contract by which one party places funds at the disposal of another for repayment. e) Reference Index: index contracted for monetary updating of values. f) Value Date: date of accounting of an operation, i.e., the date from which an operation is effectively taken into account in the financial institution's calculations and may differ from its transaction date. g) Availability Date: moment from which the holder can freely proceed to move funds deposited or transferred into their current account, without being subject to paying interest for the mobilization of these funds. h) Expenses: costs borne by financial institutions, due from third parties, and chargeable to clients, namely payments to Land Registries, Notarial Offices or those of a fiscal nature. i) Deposit: contract by which an entity (depositor) entrusts money to a banking financial institution (depositary), which acquires the right to dispose of it for its business, assuming responsibility to repay it, with or without interest, within the agreed term. j) Business Day: day of the week, from Monday to Friday, excluding national holidays. k) Commission and Expense Table: the pricing component containing maximum values for all commissions and indicative value of main expenses due from clients within the marketing of financial products and services by financial institutions, as well as complementary information regarding value date and availability dates for credited values in deposit accounts. l) Interest Rate Table: the pricing component incorporating information regarding representative rates practiced by financial institutions in more usual operations, as well as complementary information regarding conventions underlying interest calculation and rounding criteria for interest rates. m) Remote Communication Means: any communication means that can be used without the physical and simultaneous presence of the financial institution and the client. n) Pricing: set of information, permanently updated, regarding general conditions with patrimonial effects of financial products and services, made available to the public by financial institutions and composed of the Commission and Expense Pricing and the Interest Rate Pricing. o) Financial Products and Services: all those commercialized by financial institutions, subject to the supervision of the National Bank of Angola alongside the public. p) Durable Medium: any instrument that allows the client to store information personally addressed to them, so that in the future they can easily access stored information for an adequate period of time for its intended purposes, and thus reproduce that information in full and unaltered. q) Transparency: standard of conduct to be observed by financial institutions in providing information and disclosing to the public general conditions under which they provide their financial products and services. r) Effective Annual Percentage Rate (APR): total effective cost of credit, including interest, commissions, taxes, fees, insurance, plus other expenses charged to the consumer directly linked to credit use. s) Interest Rate: price of money that the borrower must pay to the capital owner, over a certain period, expressed as a percentage. t) Preferential Interest Rate: interest rate that financial institutions practice at each moment with their lowest-risk clients in short-term credit operations. u) Variable Interest Rate: interest rate that varies according to loan duration, calculated based on the reference interest rate (LUIBOR), to which a fixed margin or spread is added or subtracted. v) Representative Rates: interest rates that financial institutions most frequently practice for more usual operations, according to their nature, purpose and term.

Article 3 (Information Duties)

1. Financial institutions must provide the public with information about services and products they commercialize, in a visible, complete, true, updated and unambiguous manner, expressed in clear and objective language.
2. To ensure transparency and comparability of offered products, the aforementioned information must be provided to clients before contract conclusion, at the moment of its conclusion and during its validity, and must include correct specification of product characteristics, rates, commissions and expenses, as well as risks presented.
3. Financial institutions must have a complete Pricing listing general conditions with patrimonial effects for realization of operations and financial products/services commercialized alongside the public.

Article 4 (Duty of Assistance)

1. Financial institutions must provide clients with adequate and complete information on correct use of offered products/services, enabling assessment of adaptation of proposed contract to their needs and financial situation.

Article 5 (Other Duties) Contracts concluded between financial institutions and their clients must contain all information regarding applicable terms and conditions for products, be drafted clearly and concisely, and the financial institution must provide the client with a copy of the contract and other vouchers related to operations performed.

Article 6 (Compliance with Duties)

1. The general duties established above must also be observed whenever financial institutions provide services through third parties.

Article 7 (Pricing)

1. The Pricing is composed of the Commission and Expense Table and the Interest Rate Table, with fields filled according to the range of operations within the respective financial institution's activity object.
2. The information referred to in number 1 of this article must enable knowledge, namely: a) Maximum value of all commissions due from clients; b) Indicative value of main expenses; c) Representative rates practiced by financial institutions in more usual operations and most relevant conventions with patrimonial effects, namely value date and availability date regarding current account movement, number of days underlying interest calculation and interest rate rounding; d) Effective Annual Percentage Rate (APR), resulting from credit operations.
3. The National Bank of Angola will fix, by Regulatory Instruction, the tables composing the tables referred to in number 1 of this article, the method of filling them and procedures financial institutions must follow for public disclosure and reporting to the National Bank of Angola.

Article 8 (Information Duty regarding Pricing Disclosure)

1. Financial institutions must maintain their pricing organized, as per the previous article, in all counters and public service locations, in a highly visible and directly accessible place, on an easy and direct consultation device, including publication with electronic resources and means.
2. Financial institutions must make available the complete and updated Pricing on their websites, in a highly visible, directly accessible location and easily identifiable manner, without prior registration by interested parties.
3. Without prejudice to the preceding number, whenever financial institutions relate with clients through remote communication means, information regarding general conditions with patrimonial effects of commercialized financial products/services must be made available in due time and prior to binding to a proposal or contract.
4. Whenever financial institutions provide services through third parties, they must make available to clients the complete and updated Pricing of operations practiced in a highly visible and directly accessible place, easily identifiable and in due time.

Article 9 (Other Information Duties)

1. Pricing disclosure does not exempt financial institutions from fulfilling other information duties established in legal or regulatory instruments, to be provided to clients prior to acquisition of any product or financial service.
2. Under the Law and current regulation, whenever contracts with clients grant financial institutions the right to modify contractual conditions on their own initiative through Pricing alteration, they must communicate the content of these alterations to respective clients with a minimum advance of 30 (thirty) days relative to the intended application date, without prejudice to legal or regularly fixed terms.
3. Without prejudice to Law or regulations, financial institutions must ensure that information provided as per the preceding number allows clients to identify and accept conditions subject to alteration.

Article 10 (Commission and Expense Table)

1. The Commission and Expense Table must contain updated information on all commissions due from clients regarding financial products/services commercialized by financial institutions.
2. Indicative values of main expenses must also be included in this table.
3. Each financial institution's Pricing will also be disclosed by the National Bank of Angola on the Consumer Portal for Financial Products and Services.
4. Financial institutions may only charge clients commissions expressly provided in the Commission and Expense Table they make available to the public, as per this Notice.
5. Financial institutions cannot charge any commission values exceeding those provided in the respective Commission and Expense Table.

Article 11 (Interest Rate Table)

1. Information in the Interest Rate Table must be updated according to market conditions, allowing the public to know representative rates applied by financial institutions in operations they usually practice.
2. The Interest Rate Table must also contain the following elements: a) Preferential interest rate, whenever used by the institution in its commercial practice; b) Indexes used in credit and deposit operations with variable rates, identified by their respective designations.

Article 12 (Complementary Information)

1. Complementary information covers elements mentioned in paragraph c) of number 2, Article 7 of this Notice.
2. Regarding value date and availability date for credited values in current accounts, the disclosure obligation through the Commission and Expense Table covers, namely: a) Cash deposits made at counters; b) Deposits of values on the institution itself or different financial institutions; c) Intra-bank and inter-bank transfers; d) Value remittances; e) Values for collection or operations involving fund settlement between financial institutions; f) Discounting operations.
3. Indications regarding conventions underlying interest calculation and rounding of interest rates used by financial institutions must be presented in the Interest Rate Table.

Article 13 (Submission of Pricing)

1. Financial institutions must submit to the National Bank of Angola, as fixed by Regulatory Instruction, the Pricing of operations practiced by them.
2. Whenever alterations are made to the content of the Pricing referred to in the preceding number, financial institutions must also submit to the National Bank of Angola the Pricing of operations, duly altered, with a minimum advance time to be fixed through Regulatory Instruction.
3. After submitting the altered Pricing as per the preceding number, institutions must ensure on the intended application date that the Pricing is updated in all its disclosure channels.
4. Financial institutions are responsible, before the National Bank of Angola and third parties, for accuracy, truthfulness and currency of information provided in the Pricing.

Article 14 (Compliance with Information Duty)

1. Financial institutions bear the burden of proof for effective compliance with information duties provided in this Notice.
2. Financial institutions may comply with information duties provided in number 3 of Article 5, by providing information on paper and/or any other durable medium, except if the client expressly requests paper provision.
3. Information referred to in number 2 of Article 9 must be provided to clients through the contractually agreed support and communication means, or, in absence of contractual provision, through the support and means usually used, unless the client expressly authorizes alteration of support and communication means for this purpose.
4. Financial institutions must inform clients about the obligation to communicate any alterations of their contact means, to ensure they effectively receive information referred to in preceding numbers.
5. Financial institutions must make necessary updates resulting from received information, according to the preceding number, within 5 (five) business days from receipt date.

Article 15 (Transitional Regime) To allow adaptation to the new pricing presentation format, as per number 4 of Article 3 and number 1 of Article 4, both of this Notice, financial institutions are granted a term of 60 days, counting from the effective date of this Notice.

Article 16 (Offences) Violation of provisions in this Notice is punishable under the Law on Financial Institutions.

Article 17 (Doubts and Omissions) Doubts and omissions arising in interpretation and application of this Notice are resolved by the National Bank of Angola.

Article 18 (Repealing Norm) All provisions contrary to this Notice are repealed.

Article 19 (Entry into Force) This Notice enters into force 30 days after its publication. PUBLISHED. Luanda, March 20, 2014.

THE GOVERNOR JOSÉ DE LIMA MASSANO