Custodial wallet / SaaS in Congo

The prohibition applicable in the Republic of the Congo is Décision COBAC D-2022/071 du 6 mai 2022, issued by the Commission Bancaire de l'Afrique Centrale and not by BEAC; it bars COBAC-supervised institutions — credit institutions, microfinance establishments and payment institutions — from acquiring, holding, transferring, converting or booking crypto-assets, and requires them to detect such operations and report them to COBAC and BEAC, while leaving private holding of crypto by the public lawful and leaving the COSUMAF PSAN licensing regime in force.

No BEAC circular of 21 December 2022 bans crypto-assets; the cited PDF at beac.int returns HTTP 404, beac.int indexes no crypto content, and the real CEMAC measure is Décision COBAC D-2022/071 du 6 mai 2022 restricting COBAC-supervised institutions.

The prohibition binding financial institutions in the Republic of the Congo comes from Décision COBAC D-2022/071 du 6 mai 2022, which forbids COBAC-supervised establishments from acquiring, holding, transferring, converting or booking crypto-assets and obliges them to detect and report such operations to COBAC and BEAC; no BEAC circular of December 2022 exists.

Holding, buying, or selling cryptocurrencies.

Offering services related to cryptocurrencies.

Facilitating cryptocurrency transactions for clients.

Opening accounts for cryptocurrency service providers.

Décision COBAC D-2022/071 du 6 mai 2022 forbids credit institutions, microfinance establishments and payment institutions supervised by COBAC in the Republic of the Congo from acquiring, holding, transferring, converting or booking crypto-assets, and requires them to detect crypto-related operations and report them to COBAC and BEAC.

It is extremely difficult and risky for individuals to convert fiat currency into crypto or vice-versa through legitimate channels.

A community licensing route for crypto exchanges exists in the Republic of the Congo: Règlement n° 01/22/CEMAC/UMAC/CM/COSUMAF du 21 juillet 2022 and the Règlement Général COSUMAF du 23 mai 2023 require COSUMAF agrément as prestataire de services sur actifs numériques, covering custody, buy-sell against legal tender, platform operation, reception-transmission of orders, portfolio management, advice and placement, although COSUMAF has granted no PSAN agrément to date.

COSUMAF is the designated competent authority for virtual-asset service providers in the Republic of the Congo and may grant PSAN agrément under the Règlement Général du 23 mai 2023, so an exchange platform can hold a lawful community licence, and articles 91 to 93 of that règlement place virtual-asset risks inside COSUMAF's risk-based AML/CFT supervision.

There is no consumer protection for individuals engaged in crypto trading.

No Instruction n° 001/GRT/2022 exists; BEAC numbers its instructions n° 00X/GR/YYYY and has issued no virtual-asset instrument. Virtual-asset obligations in the CEMAC zone, including the Republic of the Congo, rest on Décision COBAC D-2022/071 du 6 mai 2022, Règlement n° 01/22/CEMAC/UMAC/CM/COSUMAF du 21 juillet 2022, the Règlement Général de la COSUMAF du 23 mai 2023 and Règlement n° 02/24/CEMAC/UMAC/CM du 20 décembre 2024, whose article 6(e) makes virtual-asset service providers assujettis.

Safekeeping and/or administration of virtual assets or instruments enabling control over virtual assets.

Evidence fact cg.aml.identification-and-verification not found (may have been renamed).

Identify the customer (natural or legal person) and verify their identity using reliable, independent source documents, data, or information.

For legal persons: understand the ownership and control structure, and identify and verify the identity of beneficial owners.

Evidence fact cg.aml.ongoing-due-diligence not found (may have been renamed).

Conduct ongoing monitoring of the business relationship and transactions undertaken throughout the course of that relationship to ensure that transactions are consistent with the VASP's knowledge of the customer, their business, and risk profile.

Evidence fact cg.aml.enhanced-due-diligence-edd not found (may have been renamed).

Apply EDD measures for higher-risk customers, business relationships, or transactions (e.g., politically exposed persons (PEPs), cross-border correspondent relationships, complex or unusually large transactions, high-risk countries). This includes obtaining additional information on the customer, beneficial owner, source of funds/wealth, and enhanced ongoing monitoring.

Reporting Obligation: Immediately report to the national Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) any suspicious transactions, including attempted transactions, where they know, suspect, or have reasonable grounds to suspect that funds are the proceeds of a criminal activity, or are related to terrorist financing, regardless of the amount.

No Tipping-Off: VASPs and their employees are prohibited from disclosing to the customer or to third parties that a suspicious transaction report has been or will be submitted.

Article 39 of Règlement n° 02/24/CEMAC/UMAC/CM du 20 décembre 2024, directly applicable in the Republic of the Congo, requires assujettis including virtual-asset service providers to keep identification, account and transaction records for a minimum of ten years after the account is closed or the business relationship ends, not five years.

Article 39 of Règlement n° 02/24/CEMAC/UMAC/CM du 20 décembre 2024, directly applicable in the Republic of the Congo, requires assujettis including virtual-asset service providers to keep identification, account and transaction records for a minimum of ten years after the account is closed or the business relationship ends, not five years.

Availability: Records must be sufficient to permit the reconstruction of individual transactions and to provide evidence for prosecution of criminal activity. They must be made available promptly to the competent authorities upon request.

The CEMAC AML/CFT instrument binding the Republic of the Congo is Règlement n° 02/24/CEMAC/UMAC/CM du 20 décembre 2024, which replaced Règlement n° 01/CEMAC/UMAC/CM du 11 avril 2016; no Règlement n° 01/18/CEMAC/UMAC/CM exists, and the 21 December 2018 CEMAC instruments are Règlement n° 02/18/CEMAC/UMAC/CM on exchange control and Règlement n° 04/18/CEMAC/UMAC/COBAC on payment services and electronic money. CEMAC règlements are directly applicable in Congo without national transposition.

The Republic of the Congo has adopted no national virtual-asset statute; exchange between virtual assets and legal tender is governed regionally, requiring a COSUMAF agrément as PSAN under the Règlement Général de la COSUMAF du 23 mai 2023 and prior agrément under article 42 of Règlement n° 02/24/CEMAC/UMAC/CM du 20 décembre 2024, while Décision COBAC D-2022/071 du 6 mai 2022 bars COBAC-supervised institutions from handling crypto-assets.

Décision COBAC D-2022/071 du 6 mai 2022 bars COBAC-supervised institutions in the Republic of the Congo from every crypto-asset operation and obliges them to detect and report crypto-related flows to COBAC and BEAC, which closes banking relationships with crypto exchange platforms as a consequence of the general prohibition rather than through a separate account-opening clause.