Notice No. 05/2012 of March 29

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Published in the Official Gazette, 1st Series, No. 61, of March 29 NOTICE NO. 05/2012 of March 29

Considering the need to establish consumer protection rules for financial products and services in Angola; Under the combined provisions of paragraph f) of number 1 of Article 21 and paragraph d) of number 1 of Article 51, both of Law No. 16/10 of July 15, the Law of the Bank of Angola, combined with Articles 55, 56, 57, 58 and 70 of Law No. 13/05 of September 30 - the Financial Institutions Law; DETERMINE:

CHAPTER I
GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1.
(Object)
The present Notice establishes the rules and procedures to be observed by financial institutions in the provision of financial products and services.

Article 2.
(Scope)
The rules and procedures of the present Notice apply to financial institutions subject to the jurisdiction of the Bank of Angola.

Article 3.
(Conduct Rules)
The financial institution, in its relations with clients, must observe the following conduct rules:

a) Act with competence, diligence, prudence, and good faith, so as not to defraud the client deliberately, negligently, imprudently, abusively, coercively, or through misleading advertising as provided by law; b) Respect the client's right to choose and switch products or services, as well as financial institutions; c) Obtain relevant and necessary information from the client to assess their capacity to fulfill obligations related to requested products or services; d) Inform in writing, clearly and understandably, the rates, commissions, and other charges levied on operations; e) Ensure that clients' personal data as well as their transactions are not used for other purposes, except to comply with client instructions and regulations issued by the Bank of Angola or when another legal provision expressly limits the duty of confidentiality; f) Enable clients to access adequate and functional complaint mechanisms for the diligent resolution of problems; g) Utilize resources, procedures, systems, and controls necessary to ensure compliance with this and other current regulations; h) Maintain a complaint book in their premises.

CHAPTER II
PUBLIC SERVICE

Article 4.
(Service Hours)
The financial institutions must:
a) Display in a visible location of the establishment the public service hours. b) Inform the Bank of Angola if authorized by the competent entity to operate outside normal business days and hours; c) Ensure clients and the general public receive service through conventional means even in cases of alternative or electronic service;

Article 5.
(Non-Discrimination)
The financial institution must not differentiate the offer of its products and services based on physical characteristics, gender, origin, marital status, religious and political beliefs, among persons at the same selectivity level defined by the institution.

Article 6.
(Priority Service)
The financial institution must guarantee priority service to persons with physical disabilities or reduced mobility (temporary or permanent), the elderly, pregnant women, nursing mothers, and persons accompanied by infants, through:
a) Creation of adequate mechanisms for priority service; b) Development of easy access conditions to cash counters and self-service terminals, as well as ease of circulation; c) Creation of appropriate structures for servicing sensory-disabled persons (visual and hearing);

Article 7.
(Security)

1. The financial institution must guarantee the physical and property security of those accessing its premises, through the installation of video surveillance systems and other adequate means for this purpose.
2. The financial institution must display in a visible and legible location the information that the space is monitored by a video surveillance system.
3. The captured images are subject to the duty of confidentiality, as provided by Law No. 13/05 of September 30.

CHAPTER III
CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION

Article 8.
(Collection of Personal Information)

1. The financial institution should only collect information necessary for the offering of its products and services, account maintenance, payment capacity assessment, execution of client instructions in observance of the "Know Your Customer" principle.
2. The financial institution must not collect information from clients related to their physical characteristics, political and religious beliefs.

Article 9.
(Duty of Confidentiality)

1. Members of the administrative or supervisory bodies of financial institutions, their employees, agents, or other entities providing services on a permanent or occasional basis must not reveal or use information regarding facts or elements concerning clients that arise exclusively from the exercise of their functions or provision of services.
2. The duty of confidentiality does not cease upon the termination of functions or services.
3. Facts or elements from client-institution relations may only be revealed with the written authorization of the client to the institution, specifying the recipient of the information, the reason, and the duration.
4. Without prejudice to the cases provided in the preceding paragraphs of this article, facts and elements covered by the duty of confidentiality may only be revealed:
   a) To the Bank of Angola, within its attributions; b) For the instruction of proceedings by order of the Judge or Public Prosecutor Magistrate; c) To the Financial Information Unit, within the scope of combating and preventing money laundering and terrorist financing; d) When another legal provision expressly limits the duty of confidentiality.
5. Within the scope of cooperation with other entities, the Bank of Angola may exchange confidential information regarding clients of financial institutions in accordance with Article 62 of Law No. 13/05 of September 30 - the Financial Institutions Law.

Article 10.
(Information Security)

1. The financial institution must implement and maintain information security policies in its internal regulations regarding accounts, operation contracting, and service provision to clients, regardless of the computer system used, in order to ensure:
   a) Restricted access for authorized employees; b) Clearly defined access levels, according to employee categories allowing them to access, modify and/or destroy information; c) Historical records that allow identifying who accessed or modified the information.

Article 11.
(Notification of Unauthorized Access)
The financial institution must inform the client in writing whenever unauthorized access to the client's information and transactions occurs.

CHAPTER IV
CLIENT SERVICE, COMPLAINTS AND APPEALS

Article 12.
(Client Service)

1. The financial institution must create a specialized client service area within its organizational structure, with the objective of ensuring:
   a) Permanent handling of complaints; b) Prompt resolution of complaints; c) That clients are informed about the progress and results of their complaints.
2. The policies and procedures of the specialized area shall be established by each institution, taking into account the following aspects:
   a) Ensure the adequacy of human, material, technological and organizational resources to achieve the above objectives and other specific ones determined by financial institutions; b) Ensure that statistical information on complaints is reported periodically to the Board of Directors. c) Inform and train employees on transparency and consumer protection standards and other applicable legislation issued by the Bank of Angola. d) Accept, investigate and resolve all client complaints brought to their consideration within the timeframes established in this regulation and maintain a complaint control system with respective statistics

Article 13.
(Information to Clients)
The financial institution must display in its branches, dependencies and establishments where its products are traded, in a visible and easily accessible location to the public and on its website, the following:
a) Information regarding the existence of a complaint service area of the financial institution, its objectives, electronic address, telephone numbers or any other communication channel, to ensure client access thereto.

Article 14.
(Complaint Procedures)

1. The financial institution must establish the following procedures to handle complaints:
   a) Receipt of the complaint submitted by the client, their representative or any consumer of its services and products, in writing, electronically, telephonically, or by entering the institution's complaint book; b) The complaint must contain the date, reason, period to which it refers and other relevant elements; c) The financial institution must assign a reference number to the complaint for future tracking and inform the client thereof; d) Whenever an investigation takes place, the institution must notify the complainant in writing about applicable rules and its complaint resolution policy, including the resolution timeframe, as well as the possibility of appeal to the Bank of Angola for unresolved issues.
2. The details referred to in the preceding paragraph must not contain the client's security access codes.
3. The financial institution must not refuse any complaint.

Article 15.
(Resolution Timeframe)

1. In the case of complaints involving only one financial institution, it must resolve the complaint within a maximum period of 30 (thirty) days from the date of the complaint.
2. If the complaints involve two or more financial institutions established in Angola, the investigating institution must present the complaint resolution within a maximum period of 45 (forty-five) days.
3. If the complaints involve one or more financial institutions not established in Angola, the investigating institution must present the complaint resolution within a maximum period of 60 (sixty) days.
4. The financial institution must, within a maximum period of 10 (ten) days, respond to requests from other financial institutions and investigate or provide information related to specific transactions or services.
5. The financial institution must not charge any fees, commissions and other expenses related to the presentation, investigation or resolution of complaints.

Article 16.
(Notification of Result)

1. The financial institution must provide the client with a written response regarding the investigation result.
2. The notification of the result must contain, at minimum, the following elements:
   a) Complaint reference number; b) Date on which the complaint was submitted; c) Summarized content of the complaint; d) Investigation result and respective justification.
3. The financial institution, upon recognizing after the investigation result that it made improper postings resulting from operational errors, must reverse them with necessary adjustments and immediately notify the client.

Article 17.
(Appeal to the Bank of Angola)

1. The complainant may appeal to the Bank of Angola if the complaint is not resolved within the established timeframes or if the complaint result does not satisfy the client.
2. The appeal of the complaint result to the Bank of Angola must be preceded by a complaint with the financial institution.
3. The appeal to the Bank of Angola must be presented in accordance with the established procedures by the Bank of Angola's Central Complaint Service.

CHAPTER V
ADVERTISING

Article 18.
(Identification, Truthfulness and Transparency)

1. The advertising of financial products and services must unequivocally identify the financial institution responsible for the advertised products.
2. For the purposes of the preceding paragraph, it is sufficient to use a partial version of the legal name of the responsible entity or a trade mark unequivocally associated with it.
3. The information contained in advertising messages must respect the truth and be duly updated.
4. The information referred to in paragraph 3 of this article must be provable at all times before the Bank of Angola.
5. In the advertising of financial products and services, necessary information must not be omitted or concealed for a correct evaluation of the characteristics of the advertised financial product or service.
6. The financial institution must ensure that advertising of its financial products and services performed by third parties respects the provisions of this Notice.
7. The rules and principles contained in this Notice apply to any dissemination media used.

CHAPTER VI
LIABILITY

Article 19.
(Liability of the Financial Institution)

1. The financial institution is liable for damages caused to consumers of its products and services, resulting from the violation of this regulation, regardless of whether they were caused by the financial institution itself or a financial services operator, as defined in specific regulations.
2. The financial institution is liable for damages that may occur during the execution of a confirmed operation when:
   a) An error in executing a payment order results from equipment or electronic funds transfer system failure that prevents the execution of an already accepted transaction by a terminal. b) An error in recording or accounting for an operation by the financial institution; c) Destruction of facilities and equipment due to causes attributable to the financial institution, resulting in client loss; d) Violation of any other duty of the financial institution provided by current legislation.

Article 20.
(Shared Systems)
As an integral part of the funds transfer and interbank services system, the financial institution must not neglect its obligations and responsibilities regarding client rights provided in this regulation and other legislation, even if the failure is attributable to another institution.

Article 21.
(Transitional Regime)

1. To allow financial institutions to adapt to the provisions of Article 6 (priority service) of this Notice, a period of 180 (one hundred and eighty) days is granted, counting from the date of publication of this Notice.
2. The financial institution must draft internal regulations regarding information security policies within a period of 90 (ninety) days, counting from the date this regulation enters into force.

Article 22.
(Offenses)
Offenses against the provisions of this Notice are punishable, in accordance with Law No. 13/05 of September 30, the Financial Institutions Law.

Article 23.
(Repealing Clause)
All legislation contrary to the provisions of this Notice is hereby repealed.

Article 24.
(Doubts and Omissions)
Doubts and omissions arising in the interpretation and application of this Notice are resolved by the Bank of Angola.

Article 25.
(Entry into Force)
The present Notice enters into force 30 (thirty) days after its publication.
PUBLISHED:
Luanda, June 1, 2011
THE GOVERNOR
JOSÉ DE LIMA MASSANO