Notice No. 01/2014 of January 17 – Monetary and Exchange Policy: Import and Export of Foreign Currency and Traveler's Checks

Published in the Official Gazette of the Republic, First Series, No. 23, on February 3 NOTICE No. 01/2014 of January 17 SUBJECT: MONETARY AND EXCHANGE POLICY

• Import and Export of Foreign Currency and Traveler's Checks Within the framework of monitoring the growth of payment instruments and given the need to reduce vulnerabilities imposed on the national economy by the circulation of foreign currency, it is essential to regulate the import and export operations of foreign currency by banking financial institutions, as well as to define the information that must be provided to the National Bank of Angola; Pursuant to the combined provisions of Articles 14 and 16 of Law No. 5/97 of June 27 - Exchange Law, and Article 70 of Law No. 13/05 of September 30 - Financial Institutions Law; In the exercise of the competence conferred upon me by paragraph d) of paragraph 1 of Article 51 of Law No. 16/10 of July 15 - National Bank of Angola Law; I HEREBY DETERMINE:

Article 1 (Subject Matter and Scope)

1. This Notice establishes the procedures for the import and export of foreign currency, as well as traveler's checks, to be observed by the financial institutions referred to in the following paragraph.
2. For the purposes of this Notice, only banking financial institutions are authorized to carry out the import and export of foreign currency and traveler's checks.

Article 2 (Licensing)

1. The import and export of foreign currency, as well as traveler's checks, are subject to prior licensing by the National Bank of Angola.
2. The license is valid for 60 (sixty) days from the date of its issuance, and may be used partially up to the licensed amount limit.
3. After using the total value of the license or upon its expiration, banking financial institutions must return them to the National Bank of Angola, Exchange Control Department, within 8 (eight) business days, with the appropriate usage annotations.

Article 3 (Processing of Licensing Requests)

1. Licensing requests for the import of foreign banknotes and coins, as well as traveler's checks, must be addressed to the National Bank of Angola, Exchange Control Department, indicating the following elements: a) Foreign currency and amount; b) Supplying financial institution and country of origin; c) Elements supporting the need for import, referencing their respective cash balances at the date of the previous request and the current date.
2. For the licensing of export of foreign currency, and traveler's checks, banking financial institutions must submit their respective request to the National Bank of Angola, Exchange Control Department, accompanied by the following information: a) Reasons supporting the need for the operation; b) Receiving financial institution and respective country; c) Foreign currency and amount.

Article 4 (Approval of Requests) The National Bank of Angola must communicate its decision to the banking financial institution within 5 (five) business days from the receipt of the request.

Article 5 (Information Obligation)

1. Banking financial institutions must report to the National Bank of Angola each foreign currency import and export operation.
2. The information referred to in the preceding paragraph must be submitted to the National Bank of Angola through the Financial Institutions Supervision System – SSIF, by the last business day of the week in which the operation occurred, in accordance with the formats defined in Annexes 1 and 2 to this Notice.
3. While the SSIF is not available, the aforementioned information must be sent in an electronic file in Excel format, via the email address dcc@bna.ao.

Article 6 (Institutional Responsibility)

1. Banking financial institutions are obligated to carry out all necessary due diligence to ensure the authenticity of imported foreign currency and traveler's checks made available at their counters.
2. During the customs clearance or processing process, banking financial institutions must comply with the administrative procedures established by the competent authorities.
3. Banking financial institutions are responsible for the information provided to the National Bank of Angola, as well as for maintaining supporting documents that justify the execution of operations, in accordance with Law No. 13/05 of September 30 - Financial Institutions Law.

Article 7 (Offenses) Offenses against the provisions of this Notice are punishable in accordance with Law No. 05/97 of June 27 and Law No. 13/05 of September 30, namely the Exchange Law and Financial Institutions Law, respectively, without prejudice to other applicable legislation.

Article 8 (Doubts and Omissions) Doubts and omissions arising from the interpretation of this Notice shall be resolved by the National Bank of Angola.

Article 9 (Repeal) Notice No. 11/99 of June 4 and Notice No. 03/10 of November 18 are hereby repealed.

Article 10 (Entry into Force) This Notice enters into force 30 days after its publication. PUBLISHED. Luanda, January 17, 2014. THE GOVERNOR JOSÉ DE LIMA MASSANO