Customers of Electronic Money Institutions (EMIs) that operate through mobile telecoms operators will have limitations on transactions from the end of this month, as part of the prevention and fight against money laundering and terrorist financing.
The decision is set out in a recently issued BoM notice, which establishes “transactional limits applicable to EMIs depending on the type of client”.
“There is a need to guide the actions of EMIs and strengthen measures to prevent and combat money laundering, terrorist financing and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, taking into account international best practice,” describes the document consulted on Thursday (11).
The notice obliges organisations to classify their clients on three levels “depending on the risk assessment”.
According to the notice, level 1 refers to “customers subject to simplified identification, verification and due diligence measures, depending on their low risk, who now have a maximum account balance of 200,000 meticals, the same value as the daily limit for transfers and withdrawals and 40,000 per transfer and transaction”.
“Level 2 will be assigned to customers for whom standard or reinforced identification, verification and due diligence measures are adopted, as long as they fall within the transactional limits of a maximum account balance of 500,000 meticals, the same value as the daily limit for transfers and withdrawals, and 75,000 meticals per transfer and transaction,” he points out.
Level 3 corresponds to micro and small companies, which now have a maximum account balance of 3 million meticals, the same value as the daily limit for transfers and withdrawals, with no other restrictions.
The notice emphasises that medium and large companies, as defined in the Commercial Code, and public administration bodies and institutions are excluded from these limits.
In March, the National Assessment of Terrorist Financing Risks report stated that the Electronic Money Institutions sector represents a high level of threat for terrorist financing.
The government document, published by Lusa, emphasised that there is an excessive movement of funds to active terrorist threat zones using the EMIs operating in Mozambique.
“In these areas, there is a preference for the use of Electronic Money Institutions, given the ease of service and rapid movement of funds. These factors combined precipitate and make the abuse of this sector by terrorist sympathisers attractive,” the document explains, according to which the mobile money market has been growing due to the increase in the number of mobile phone users, and the level of penetration in rural areas is quite high compared to traditional banking. In fact, in September 2023, the value of the EMI’s assets totalled 16.9 billion meticals and the accumulated share capital was 2 billion meticals.
