Custodial wallet / SaaS in Equatorial Guinea
Hosted wallet provider that holds keys on behalf of end users, often white-labeled to businesses (custody as a service).
Custodial SaaS is not permitted in Equatorial Guinea.
Verdict Details
- Permitted
- no
- Local entity required
- No
- Licensing burden
- None
- Last updated
- 2026-07-13
AML Obligations
- General AML/CFT obligations under Law N° 4/2004 and CEMAC/GABAC directives apply to financial institutions, but custodial wallet/SaaS providers cannot operate because crypto activities are prohibited — no AML registration or licensing pathway exists for VASPs.
- If theoretically permitted: CDD/EDD required under Law N° 4/2004 including identity verification, beneficial ownership identification, and purpose-of-business documentation.
- If theoretically permitted: STRs must be filed with CENTIF-GE (National FIU).
- If theoretically permitted: Record retention of at least 5 years post-relationship or post-transaction.
Key Restrictions
- BEAC Circular No. 001/GR/2022 prohibits the issuance, trading, holding, and any other activities related to crypto-assets by any person or entity subject to the CEMAC financial regulatory framework.
- Custody providers are explicitly prohibited from offering custody services.
- No licensing or registration regime exists for VASPs — there is a blanket prohibition, not a regulatory pathway.
- Stablecoins pegged to XAF may be classified as electronic money under Regulation N°02/18/CEMAC/UMAC/CM, requiring full backing by liquid assets (Article 27) and EMI authorization — but this does not create a pathway for crypto custody.
Key Risks
- Operating a custodial wallet/SaaS service in or from Equatorial Guinea is legally prohibited under BEAC Circular No. 001/GR/2022, exposing the operator to criminal/regulatory enforcement.
- CEMAC/BEAC has cited financial stability, consumer protection, ML/TF, and capital flight concerns — enforcement actions are a material risk.
- No grandfathering, transitional provisions, or licensing exceptions exist for existing operators.
- Attempting to structure through a non-CEMAC entity serving GQ residents may still implicate local prohibitions and create AML/regulatory exposure for the provider.
Evidence
This verdict synthesizes the following facts. Each fact links to its primary source(s).
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.
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.
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.
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.
No instrument entitled 'Circulaire n° 001/GR/2022 portant interdiction des crypto-actifs' exists; BEAC's register of instructions, circulaires and règlements contains no such text and no crypto-asset prohibition, and the French-titled citation is an invention.
No CEMAC instrument prohibits crypto-asset activity for individuals; the regional measure of 6 May 2022 is Décision COBAC D-2022/071, addressed to COBAC-supervised institutions, and community law since Règlement n° 02/24/CEMAC/UMAC/CM of 20 December 2024 subjects virtual-asset service providers in Equatorial Guinea to authorisation and AML/CFT supervision instead of prohibition.
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.
Evidence fact gq.aml.primary-financial-intelligence-unit-fiu not found (may have been renamed).
Obligation to Report: VASPs must establish systems to detect and report suspicious transactions.
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.
Règlement n° 02/18/CEMAC/UMAC/CM governs foreign exchange and cannot classify a stablecoin as electronic money; electronic money in the CEMAC is governed by Règlement n° 04/18/CEMAC/UMAC/COBAC du 21 décembre 2018 on payment services, and a digitally issued token in Equatorial Guinea otherwise falls to the jeton numérique regime of COSUMAF rather than to the e-money regime.
Article 27 of Règlement n° 02/18/CEMAC/UMAC/CM concerns non-resident CFA franc accounts and the duty of a domiciling intermediary to report doubts under CEMAC AML/CFT rules, and imposes no backing obligation on electronic money; the segregation of funds received against electronic money is required by COBAC Règlement R-2019/02, article 10, implementing Règlement n° 04/18/CEMAC/UMAC/COBAC.
Verdict Attribution
- Source:
- AI-Generated · Unreviewed
- AI synthesized:
- 2026-07-13 (deepseek-chat)
- Last updated:
- 2026-07-13
- Confidence:
- high
This verdict was produced by an AI model from the underlying facts. Confirm with counsel before relying on it for material decisions.
Not permitted — BEAC Circular No. 001/GR/2022 imposes a blanket prohibition on crypto-asset activities including custody services; no licensing or registration pathway exists for custodial wallet/SaaS providers in Equatorial Guinea.
Questions this verdict aims to answer
- What custody license / qualified-custodian status applies?
- What segregation, insurance, and proof-of-reserves rules apply?
- What AML obligations attach to the SaaS vs the white-label client?