Crypto-funded debit card in Equatorial Guinea

BEAC issued no Circular No. 001/GR/2022 of 29 June 2022 on the prohibition of crypto-assets; BEAC's register of Instructions, Circulaires et Règlements lists no 2022 crypto instrument, and the CEMAC measure of that period is Décision COBAC D-2022/071 du 6 mai 2022, binding supervised institutions only.

No CEMAC prohibition reaches the issuance, trading or holding of crypto-assets by any person: Décision COBAC D-2022/071 du 6 mai 2022 binds only institutions COBAC supervises, and Règlement n° 02/24/CEMAC/UMAC/CM of 20 December 2024 instead treats virtual-asset service providers in Equatorial Guinea as regulated obliged entities subject to authorisation and AML/CFT duties.

Exchanges: Prohibited from operating.

Custody of digital assets for third parties is a licensable activity rather than a prohibited one in Equatorial Guinea: it appears in the list of services requiring COSUMAF agrément under Règlement n° 01/22/CEMAC/UMAC/CM/COSUMAF, and the Règlement Général COSUMAF du 23 mai 2023 defines the PSAN as a professional providing purchase-sale, custody and platform services.

Payment institutions in Equatorial Guinea are barred from crypto-asset dealings by Décision COBAC D-2022/071 du 6 mai 2022 as COBAC-supervised entities, not by any prohibition on crypto payment processing as such; unsupervised persons face no equivalent bar and virtual-asset service provision is instead subject to authorisation under Règlement n° 02/24/CEMAC/UMAC/CM.

Other VASPs: Any entity dealing with virtual assets in a professional capacity.

Virtual-asset service providers operating in Equatorial Guinea carry AML/CFT obligations directly under Règlement n° 02/24/CEMAC/UMAC/CM of 20 December 2024: article 6 lists them among the obliged entities, article 42 requires prior authorisation and the transmission of originator and beneficiary information above 500 000 FCFA for occasional transactions, and article 39 sets a ten-year record-retention period, while no CEMAC text fixes a minimum capital for PSAN.

No PSAN application process operates in Equatorial Guinea because COSUMAF has issued no implementing instruction and granted no agrément, while the licensing obligation itself exists in force under Règlement n° 01/22/CEMAC/UMAC/CM/COSUMAF and the Règlement Général COSUMAF du 23 mai 2023.

A licensing regime for digital-asset services applies in Equatorial Guinea through directly applicable community law: article 144 of Règlement n° 01/22/CEMAC/UMAC/CM/COSUMAF du 21 juillet 2022 requires COSUMAF agrément as prestataire de services sur actifs numériques, and the Règlement Général COSUMAF du 23 mai 2023 supplies the framework, while no implementing instruction has been issued, no minimum capital is set and no agrément has been granted.

Licences for digital-asset services exist in CEMAC law and cover Equatorial Guinea: article 160 of Règlement n° 01/22/CEMAC/UMAC/CM/COSUMAF lists custody for third parties, purchase and sale against legal tender, platform operation, reception and transmission of orders, portfolio management, advice and placement, all subject to COSUMAF agrément, and no such agrément has yet been issued to any operator.

Règlement n° 02/18/CEMAC/UMAC/CM du 21 décembre 2018 is the CEMAC foreign-exchange regulation, portant réglementation des changes dans la CEMAC, in force 1 March 2019; payment services and electronic money are governed by Règlement n° 04/18/CEMAC/UMAC/COBAC of the same date, in force 1 January 2019.

Equatorial Guinea has no standalone national AML/CFT statute; the GABAC mutual evaluation adopted on 22 November 2024 records that the country relies entirely on the directly applicable CEMAC règlement, supplemented by the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure, and no law numbered 4/2004 on money laundering appears in that report.

The foundational CEMAC AML/CFT text is a UMAC Ministerial Committee règlement, not a UEAC directive: Règlement n° 01/03-CEMAC-UMAC of 4 April 2003, revised by Règlement n° 02/10 of 2 October 2010 and Règlement n° 01/16/CEMAC/UMAC/CM of 11 April 2016, and superseded by Règlement n° 02/24/CEMAC/UMAC/CM of 20 December 2024, which applies directly in Equatorial Guinea without national transposition.

Obligation to Report: VASPs must establish systems to detect and report suspicious transactions.

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

Beneficial Ownership: Identify and verify the natural person(s) who ultimately own or control the customer, or the natural person(s) on whose behalf a transaction is being conducted.

Ongoing Monitoring: Conduct ongoing monitoring of the business relationship and transactions to ensure consistency with the institution's knowledge of the customer, their business, and risk profile.

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

Equatorial Guinea levies no separate capital gains tax and no crypto-specific gains regime; company capital gains fall within taxable profits taxed at the 25% corporate income tax rate under the Tax Code enacted by Law n° 1/2024 of 19 November 2024.

Equatorial Guinea taxes company capital gains as part of taxable profits subject to corporate income tax at 25%, and no Equatorial Guinean instrument classifies virtual assets as property or as an asset for tax purposes.

Equatorial Guinea's personal income tax scale runs from 0% on annual income up to XAF 1,400,000 to a top marginal rate of 25% on income above XAF 15,000,000, with intermediate rates of 10%, 15% and 20%.

Equatorial Guinea's corporate income tax rate is 25% of taxable profits, with a minimum income tax of 1.5% of the year's turnover for fiscal year 2025, following the Tax Code enacted by Law n° 1/2024 of 19 November 2024.