Remote VASP serving residents in Gabon

BEAC Instruction n° 001/GR/2021 defines the operating procedures of the Centrale des Incidents de Paiement and carries no crypto-asset provision, and BEAC has issued no instruction banning crypto-assets in the CEMAC zone; the CEMAC measure on crypto-assets is Décision COBAC D-2022/071 du 6 mai 2022, which binds only institutions supervised by COBAC.

Décision COBAC D-2022/071 du 6 mai 2022 bars every COBAC-supervised institution operating in Gabon, including credit institutions, microfinance establishments and payment institutions, from acquiring, holding, transferring or converting crypto-assets and from booking them on their balance sheets, which forecloses bank-provided crypto custody; the décision binds supervised institutions only and leaves holding of crypto by private persons lawful.

Custody of digital assets for third parties is a licensed activity in Gabon: article 160 of Règlement n° 01/22/CEMAC/UMAC/CM/COSUMAF du 21 juillet 2022 places prestation de services sur actifs numériques under the COSUMAF regime, article 1 of the Règlement Général COSUMAF du 23 mai 2023 defines the prestataire de services sur actifs numériques by reference to conservation d'actifs numériques, and article 42 of Règlement n° 02/24/CEMAC/UMAC/CM du 20 décembre 2024 forbids carrying on virtual-asset service activity without prior agrément; COSUMAF has issued no PSAN agrément to date.

The instrument closing the crypto channel for Gabonese banks is Décision COBAC D-2022/071 du 6 mai 2022, taken by COBAC and not by BEAC, and non-bank operators are not in an unregulated space: the Règlement Général COSUMAF du 23 mai 2023 subjects prestataires de services sur actifs numériques to a COSUMAF agrément at articles 336 and following, and article 42 of Règlement n° 02/24/CEMAC/UMAC/CM requires prior agrément before any virtual-asset service activity is carried on.

Gabon applies the CEMAC prestataire de services sur actifs numériques regime, under which digital-asset custody is licensed by COSUMAF, and no CEMAC or COSUMAF text yet imposes a rule segregating client digital assets from a custodian's own holdings; the segregation duty would come from the COSUMAF implementing instruction for PSAN, which remains unpublished more than three years after the Règlement Général was adopted.

No CEMAC or COSUMAF text imposes insurance or bonding obligations on digital-asset custodians in Gabon, while the underlying licensing regime does exist: prestataires de services sur actifs numériques require a COSUMAF agrément under the Règlement Général COSUMAF du 23 mai 2023 and prior agrément under article 42 of Règlement n° 02/24/CEMAC/UMAC/CM, and the prudential detail awaits the COSUMAF implementing instruction for PSAN.

No CEMAC or COSUMAF text mandates cold storage or any named security protocol for digital-asset custodians in Gabon, and the licensing regime that would carry such technical rules is in force: article 160 of Règlement n° 01/22/CEMAC/UMAC/CM/COSUMAF covers services sur actifs numériques and the Règlement Général COSUMAF du 23 mai 2023 makes their provision subject to COSUMAF agrément, with the operational requirements left to an implementing instruction that COSUMAF has not published.

CEMAC law uses no category of 'qualified custodian', and its functional equivalent is the prestataire de services sur actifs numériques whose activity includes conservation d'actifs numériques, defined at article 1 of the Règlement Général COSUMAF du 23 mai 2023 and brought within the COSUMAF regime by article 160 of Règlement n° 01/22/CEMAC/UMAC/CM/COSUMAF du 21 juillet 2022; Gabon has no national definition of its own because the CEMAC texts apply directly.

A framework for digital-asset custody already applies in Gabon rather than being pending: Règlement n° 01/22/CEMAC/UMAC/CM/COSUMAF du 21 juillet 2022 brings jetons numériques and services sur actifs numériques into the COSUMAF regime, the Règlement Général COSUMAF du 23 mai 2023 creates the PSAN status and subjects it to agrément, and article 42 of Règlement n° 02/24/CEMAC/UMAC/CM du 20 décembre 2024 requires prior agrément of virtual-asset service providers; the outstanding step is the COSUMAF implementing instruction setting application conditions and fees.

While global trends (e.g., FATF recommendations) push countries to regulate VASPs, specific implementation in CEMAC countries has been slow regarding a facilitative rather than prohibitory approach.

CENAREF Website: While CENAREF's website might not specifically mention "virtual assets" or "VASPs" in its publicly available texts, it is responsible for implementing AML/CFT laws that are generally aligned with FATF recommendations.

General Principle: If virtual asset service providers (including custodians) were to be explicitly recognized and regulated, they would fall under CENAREF's oversight for AML/CFT purposes. However, without specific designation, the practical application to crypto businesses remains a challenge.

The absence of specific regulations, leading to a legal grey area.

The potential for future regulatory changes, which could include outright bans, strict licensing, or a more facilitative framework.

CEMAC law recognises a single undifferentiated jeton, defined at article 1 of the Règlement Général COSUMAF du 23 mai 2023 as an intangible asset representing one or more rights in digital form issued, recorded, held or transferred through a dispositif d'enregistrement électronique partagé, and it creates no category of jeton d'investissement resting on a 2000 instrument on the harmonisation of financial instruments; article 76 of Règlement n° 01/22/CEMAC/UMAC/CM/COSUMAF du 21 juillet 2022 instead brings jetons numériques within the appel public à l'épargne regime.

The Règlement Général COSUMAF du 23 mai 2023 defines jeton functionally without distinguishing utility tokens from other tokens, so no CEMAC text states that jetons d'usage fall outside the definition of financial instruments; every jeton offered to the public engages the appel public à l'épargne regime of article 76 of Règlement n° 01/22/CEMAC/UMAC/CM/COSUMAF and articles 125 to 163 of the Règlement Général.

CEMAC law contains no category of jeton de paiement and gives BEAC no licensing role over tokens: monnaie électronique under Règlement n° 04/18/CEMAC/UMAC/COBAC du 21 décembre 2018 is monetary value stored electronically representing a claim on the issuing establishment, which a crypto-asset does not create, and it is COBAC that licenses and supervises electronic-money issuers and payment institutions while BEAC approves payment-system solutions.

A public offering of jetons numériques in Gabon does require COSUMAF clearance, but not under any article 5: article 76 of Règlement n° 01/22/CEMAC/UMAC/CM/COSUMAF du 21 juillet 2022 applies the appel public à l'épargne regime to jetons numériques, and the procedure sits at articles 125 to 163 of the Règlement Général COSUMAF du 23 mai 2023, with the visa granted at articles 150 to 161.

An issuer making an appel public à l'épargne in the CEMAC market must publish a document d'information carrying a COSUMAF visa under articles 150 to 161 of the Règlement Général COSUMAF du 23 mai 2023, and article 156 lets COSUMAF refuse the visa where the information is insufficient or the issuer's dirigeants lack the requisite probité; no article 5 governs this and the instrument is a document d'information rather than a prospectus approved under that number.

Règlement n° 01/16-CEMAC-UMAC-CM du 11 avril 2016 governed AML/CFT in Gabon until the UMAC Ministerial Committee adopted Règlement n° 02/24/CEMAC/UMAC/CM at Libreville on 20 December 2024; the 2024 règlement supersedes it, defines actif virtuel and PSAV at article 2, lists PSAV among the assujettis at article 6 and requires prior agrément plus a virtual-asset travel rule at article 42.

Note: While this regulation predates FATF's specific guidance on virtual assets (Recommendation 15 and its Interpretative Note from 2018), its broad scope often means VASPs are expected to comply as "financial institutions" or similar entities if they perform functions akin to traditional financial services.

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Individuals: Obtain and verify identity using reliable, independent source documents (e.g., national ID cards, passports, driver's licenses) for name, date of birth, place of birth, address, and nationality.

Legal Entities (Companies): Obtain and verify information such as the company's name, legal form, address of registered office, names of directors, and provisions governing the power to bind the company. Identify and verify the identity of the beneficial owners (individuals who ultimately own or control the company) and persons acting on behalf of the company.

Purpose and Nature of the Business Relationship: Understand the purpose and intended nature of the business relationship or the specific transaction.

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

Keep customer identification data up-to-date.

Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD): Apply EDD in situations identified as higher risk, including:

Relationships with Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs).

Transactions involving high-risk jurisdictions.

Complex, unusually large transactions, or unusual patterns of transactions that have no apparent economic or visible lawful purpose.

For virtual assets, this could involve deeper scrutiny of the source of funds/wealth, understanding the origin and destination of virtual assets, and the underlying purpose of transactions.

Obligation to Report: Any VASP that suspects or has reasonable grounds to suspect that funds (fiat or virtual assets) are the proceeds of a criminal activity, or are related to terrorist financing, must report its suspicions.

Suspicious transaction reports in Gabon are filed with the Agence Nationale d'Investigation Financière (ANIF), the administrative financial intelligence unit attached to the Ministry of the Economy, which receives, analyses and transmits them to the competent judicial authorities under Règlement n° 02/24/CEMAC/UMAC/CM.

No Tipping-Off: VASPs and their employees are prohibited from disclosing to the customer or to third parties that an STR has been filed.

Article 39 of Règlement n° 02/24/CEMAC/UMAC/CM requires obliged entities in Gabon, including virtual-asset service providers, to keep customer identification documents and transaction records for a minimum of ten years after the account is closed or the business relationship ends, not five years.

Copies of documents used for identification and verification of customers and beneficial owners.

Account files and business correspondence.

Records of transactions, including the amount, currency (fiat and/or virtual asset type and quantity), date, and the identity of the parties involved.

Records of suspicious transaction reports filed.

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

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