COBAC Regulation R-2009/02 on Credit Institution Categories, Legal Forms, and Authorized Activities

COMMISSION BANCAIRE DE L'AFRIQUE CENTRALE

COBAC Regulation R-2009/02 on the determination of categories of credit institutions, their legal form, and authorized activities

The Central African Monetary Commission convened on April 1, 2009 in Bata (Equatorial Guinea);

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) and its various annexes;

Having regard to the Convention governing the Central African Monetary Union (UMAC);

Having regard to the Convention of October 16, 1990 establishing a Central African Monetary Commission, particularly the first paragraph of Articles 8 and 9 of its Annex;

Having regard to the Convention of January 17, 1992 on the Harmonization of Banking Regulation in the States of Central Africa;

Having regard to Regulation No. 02/08/CEMAC/UMAC/COBAC conferring competence on COBAC for determining the categories of credit institutions, their minimum capital, legal form, and authorized activities;

Having regard to the provisions of the OHADA Uniform Act on commercial company law and economic interest groups;

DECIDES

Article 1. – Credit institutions are entities that habitually carry out banking operations. These include receiving funds from the public, granting loans, issuing guarantees in favor of other credit institutions, making payment instruments available to clients, and managing payment means.

Article 2. – Funds received from the public are considered to be funds that a person collects from a third party, notably in the form of deposits, with the right to dispose of them for their own account, but subject to the obligation to repay them. However, the following are not considered funds received from the public:

1. – Funds received or credited to the accounts of general partners or limited partners in a partnership, shareholders or members holding at least 5 percent of the share capital, directors, members of the management board and supervisory board or managers, as well as funds from participatory loans.
2. – Funds that a company receives from its employees, provided their amount does not exceed 10 percent of its equity. For the purpose of assessing this threshold, funds received from employees under specific legislative provisions are not taken into account.

Article 3. – For the purposes of this text, a credit operation is any act by which a person acting for valuable consideration provides or promises to provide funds to another person, or assumes, in that person's interest, a signed commitment such as an endorsement, guarantee, or surety. Credit leasing is assimilated to credit operations, and generally any rental operation accompanied by a purchase option.

Article 4. – Payment means are considered to be all instruments, regardless of the medium or technical process used, that enable any person to transfer funds.

Article 5. – Credit institutions may carry out ancillary operations related to their activities, such as:

1. – Foreign exchange operations;
2. – Operations on gold, precious metals, and coins;
3. – Safe deposit box rental;
4. – Placement, subscription, purchase, management, custody, and sale of securities and any financial instrument;
5. – Advisory and assistance services in wealth or financial management, financial engineering, and generally all services designed to facilitate the creation and development of businesses, subject to legislative provisions regarding the illegal exercise of certain professions;
6. – Simple rental operations for movable or immovable property for institutions authorized to carry out credit leasing.

Article 6. – Credit institutions may not:

• acquire or hold participations in companies,
• habitually exercise an activity other than those referred to in Articles 1 to 4, except under the conditions defined by Commission Regulations that will set the maximum authorized level for these operations.

Article 7. – A credit institution must legally be constituted as a public limited company (société anonyme) with a board of directors, within the meaning of the OHADA Uniform Act on commercial company law and economic interest groups, with the exception of branches of credit institutions having their headquarters abroad.

Article 8. – Credit institutions are approved as universal banks, specialized banks, financial institutions, or finance companies.

Article 9. – Universal banks are banking institutions. They are generally authorized to receive all funds from the public. They may carry out all banking operations and ancillary operations as referred to in Articles 1 to 5, as well as non-banking operations under the conditions provided in Article 6.

Article 10. – Specialized banks are banking institutions. They are generally authorized to receive all funds from the public. Specialized banks are distinguished by the specific or restrictive nature of their field of activity. They carry out banking operations within the limit of the approval decision concerning them or the statutory, legislative, and regulatory provisions specific to them, while respecting the common prescriptions of banking regulation.

Article 11. – Finance companies are financial institutions. They may not receive funds from the public on demand or for terms of less than two years. They finance their activities through their own equity, borrowings from other credit institutions, on capital markets, or any other legally permissible means. They carry out banking operations resulting from the approval decision concerning them or the statutory, legislative, and regulatory provisions specific to them.

Article 12. – Specialized financial institutions are financial institutions. They may not receive funds from the public on demand or for terms of less than two years. They assume a public interest mission decided by the national authority. The financing modalities of their activities, as well as authorized banking, ancillary, and non-banking operations, are governed by specific legislative and regulatory texts while respecting the common prescriptions of banking regulation.

Article 13. – This Regulation repeals and replaces all national provisions to the contrary on the same subject matter.

Article 14. – This Regulation shall be notified to the Ministers responsible for currency and credit, as well as to all subject credit institutions and their professional associations, and published in the Official Journal of all States.

Article 15. – The Secretary General of COBAC is responsible for the implementation of this Regulation, which shall enter into force as of June 1, 2009.

For the Central African Monetary Commission, The President, Philibert ANDZEMBE