The Bank of Mozambique recovered and returned approximately 1.7 billion meticais, equivalent to $26.6 million, to financial consumers during 2025, following supervisory actions and the handling of complaints filed by customers of financial institutions.
According to Lusa, the information is contained in the central bank’s 2025 Annual Report, released this Friday (5), which also mentions the imposition of sanctions on nine Credit Institutions and Financial Companies (ICSF) for non-compliance with prudential, foreign exchange, consumer protection, and anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing regulations.
According to the document, the amount recovered represents a 22.9% increase compared to 2024, reflecting the strengthening of the regulator’s supervisory actions and mechanisms for protecting financial consumers.
Of the total amount returned to customers, approximately 39% resulted from the correction of irregularities related to deposit accounts. Another 18.6% corresponds to the refund of amounts unduly charged in the form of commissions and fees, while 17.8% relates to undue charges associated with bank cards.
In response to the violations detected, the Bank of Mozambique imposed fines totaling 71.5 million meticais, equivalent to approximately $1.1 million. Among the most heavily penalized institutions are Banco Comercial e de Investimentos (BCI), which was hit with fines totaling 42.7 million meticais, and First National Bank (FNB), with fines of 13.1 million meticais.
The report also notes a significant reduction in the number of complaints filed by financial consumers with the central bank. In 2025, 1,164 complaints were recorded, 35.7% fewer than in the previous year, marking the first decline observed in the last five years.
According to the BdM, this trend is linked to stricter requirements imposed on financial institutions regarding compliance with consumer protection standards, as well as improvements in internal complaint management and resolution mechanisms. The reduction in complaints and the increase in recovered amounts indicate a higher level of regulatory intervention in the financial sector.
