Settlement Account Agreement within the Real-Time Gross Settlement System (RBTR/RTGS Guinea)

REPUBLIC OF GUINEA
CENTRAL BANK

SETTLEMENT ACCOUNT AGREEMENT WITHIN THE REAL-TIME GROSS SETTLEMENT SYSTEM (RBTR/RTGS GUINEA)

Between the undersigned:

1. The Central Bank of the Republic of Guinea, hereinafter referred to as "the BCRG"

on the one hand,

2. The participants in the Real-Time Gross Settlement System (RBTR/RTGS Guinea), hereinafter referred to as "the Participant(s)"

on the other hand,

Preamble: The BCRG manages and controls the Real-Time Gross Settlement System (RBTR/RTGS Guinea) for large-value and urgent payments, operating through the execution of Transfer Orders charged in real-time to a Settlement Account. This annex forms part of the regulations governing the Real-Time Gross Settlement System (RBTR/RTGS Guinea).

It has been agreed and stipulated as follows:

This agreement defines the conditions and procedures for opening and operating the settlement account of Participants in the Real-Time Gross Settlement System (RBTR/RTGS Guinea) established at the BCRG.

OPENING AND OPERATION OF THE SETTLEMENT ACCOUNT

Article 1: A settlement account (SA) is a specific account on which all settlements related to operations admitted into the Real-Time Gross Settlement System (RBTR/RTGS Guinea) are recorded. Being operated in real-time, the balance of this account serves as a reference for transactions and the monitoring of mandatory reserves.

Article 2: Only one settlement account is opened per Participant and per currency processed: Guinean Franc (GNF), US Dollar (USD) and Euro (EUR).

The settlement account must at all times show a credit or zero balance. The credit balance of the settlement account does not accrue interest.

Article 3: The settlement account is opened and operates in accordance with the BCRG's codification conditions and procedures, unless otherwise provided by this agreement.

The settlement account is the account on which all settlements related to operations admitted into the Real-Time Gross Settlement System (RBTR/RTGS Guinea) are recorded.

Article 4: By adhering to this agreement, the direct or indirect Participant grants a mandate to the Real-Time Gross Settlement System (RBTR/RTGS Guinea) to charge all operations admitted into this system on its settlement account, presented by the direct Participant under its SWIFT identifier and conforming to technical standards, particularly authentication as provided in the technical specifications of the Real-Time Gross Settlement System (RBTR/RTGS Guinea).

Article 5: All exchanges with the Real-Time Gross Settlement System (RBTR/RTGS Guinea) are carried out in the form of formatted SWIFT messages.

Financial and non-financial message exchanges with the Real-Time Gross Settlement System (RBTR/RTGS Guinea) are carried out primarily via the SWIFT network, or alternatively, via the private backup network. Non-financial messages may be processed through the WEB interface.

Article 6: The settlement account can only record the following operations:

1. Central Bank Operations

Each Participant in the Real-Time Gross Settlement System (RBTR/RTGS Guinea) accepts that money market and foreign exchange operations, as well as transfers and withdrawals initiated by the BCRG, are settled within the Real-Time Gross Settlement System (RBTR/RTGS Guinea), in the form of debits or credits on the Participant's settlement account, at the initiative of the BCRG.

2. Bank Operations

These are dematerialized transfers issued by Participants in the Real-Time Gross Settlement System (RBTR/RTGS Guinea) in accordance with the technical specifications of the Real-Time Gross Settlement System (RBTR/RTGS Guinea), for the settlement:

• interbank treasury operations;
• intra-bank treasury operations;
• individual transfers, the minimum amount of which is set by a BCRG note addressed to Participants in the Real-Time Gross Settlement System (RBTR/RTGS Guinea).

3. Balances of Exogenous Systems

The Participant in the Real-Time Gross Settlement System (RBTR/RTGS Guinea) grants this system a mandate to charge all balances of exogenous systems presented to the BCRG on its settlement account.

Exogenous systems encompass cheque clearing operations, transfers, bills of exchange, withdrawals, dematerialized securities transactions, monetary transactions, stock market transactions, etc.

Debit balances of exogenous systems are subject to balance verification before charging.

In the event that the total debit balances cannot be charged, the Real-Time Gross Settlement System (RBTR/RTGS Guinea) rejects all balances, and no debit or credit balance will be charged.

4. Other Operations Admitted into the Real-Time Gross Settlement System (RBTR/RTGS Guinea)

The BCRG may create new categories of operations admitted into the Real-Time Gross Settlement System (RBTR/RTGS Guinea) and define their priority level.

The Participant in the Real-Time Gross Settlement System (RBTR/RTGS Guinea) accepts in advance the creation of these new operations, as well as their priority level and charging on its settlement account, potentially at the initiative of the BCRG, similar to Central Bank operations.

Article 7: A transfer can no longer be cancelled or disputed by the sender or recipient once transmitted and received by the Real-Time Gross Settlement System (RBTR/RTGS Guinea).

Transfers must be charged immediately, subject to balance and priority rules, under the conditions and procedures provided in the technical specifications.

Article 8: The charging of operations admitted into the Real-Time Gross Settlement System (RBTR/RTGS Guinea) on the Participant's settlement account makes it impossible for the issuing Participant to revoke the transfer order after its transmission and reception by the Real-Time Gross Settlement System (RBTR/RTGS Guinea) (irrevocability of the order), and also makes it impossible for the BCRG to challenge an operation admitted into the Real-Time Gross Settlement System (RBTR/RTGS Guinea) once it has been charged to a settlement account (irrevocability of the settlement).

Article 9: The charging of any operation admitted into the Real-Time Gross Settlement System (RBTR/RTGS Guinea) to the debit of a settlement account is subject to verification of sufficient balance at the settlement account level.

Operations admitted into the Real-Time Gross Settlement System (RBTR, RTGS Guinea) are processed in the order of their receipt by the Real-Time Gross Settlement System (RBTR/RTGS Guinea) according to the "first-in, first-out" (FIFO) rule, and charged one by one in real-time as long as the account balance allows such charging.

Article 10: The Participant may initiate liquidity transfers from its settlement account to its reserve sub-account and vice versa during the scheduled time for exchanging operations in the Real-Time Gross Settlement System (RBTR/RTGS Guinea).

In the absence of sufficient balance, operations admitted into the Real-Time Gross Settlement System (RBTR/RTGS Guinea) are queued and classified according to their priority level and chronological order.

Article 11: The different priority levels are established by the system as follows:
001 - High priority for system operations.
002 - Dematerialized securities transactions.
003 - Net settlement of ACP/ACH balances.
004 - Automatic refund operations (Buy-Back operations).
005 - 009 - Central Bank operations.
010 - 039 - Participant operations with high priority.
040 - 069 - Participant operations with medium priority.
070 - 098 - Participant operations with low priority.
099 - Text messages and reports.

Article 12: The presence of queued operations in a Participant's settlement account in the Real-Time Gross Settlement System (RBTR/RTGS Guinea) prevents the charging of any subsequent debit operation on the account as long as prior operations of the same priority level have not been charged.

In this case, the Participant in the Real-Time Gross Settlement System (RBTR/RTGS Guinea) is invited to release transfers remaining queued within the timeframes set by the BCRG.

Orders that would be rejected at end-of-day for insufficient balance are notified to the Participant.

Article 13: This agreement is governed by Guinean Law. The courts of Guinea are solely competent in case of dispute.

Made in Conakry, on 09 / October / 2017

SETTLEMENT ACCOUNT AGREEMENT WITHIN THE REAL-TIME GROSS SETTLEMENT SYSTEM (RBTR/RTGS GUINEA)

List of Participants

N°	Participant	Name and Surname	Signature	Date
1	BCRG
2	BICIGUI
3	SGBG
4	BIG
5	ORABANK
6	BPMG
7	FBBNANK
8	ECOBANK
9	FI BANK
10	SKYE BANK
11	BSIC
12	UBA
13	NSIA
14	BCI
15	AFRILAND
16	BNG
17	BDG

Made in Conakry, on 09 / October / 2017