On-shore VASP in Equatorial Guinea
Locally-incorporated VASP that operates under full local jurisdiction, holding all required licenses and registrations.
On-shore VASP is not permitted in Equatorial Guinea.
Verdict Details
- Permitted
- no
- Local entity required
- No
- Licensing burden
- High
- Last updated
- 2026-07-13
AML Obligations
- Despite the general prohibition, AML/CFT obligations under CEMAC regional law (Directive N° 01/03-UEAC-CM-300-CM-06) and national law (Law N° 4/2004) technically cover any entity dealing with virtual assets — though operational compliance is impossible because the activity itself is prohibited.
- Customer Due Diligence (CDD): identity verification for individuals and legal entities, beneficial ownership identification, and understanding the purpose of the business relationship.
- Ongoing monitoring of business relationships and transactions (risk-based approach).
- Suspicious Transaction Reporting (STR) to the national FIU (CENTIF-GE).
- Record-keeping of all identification data, transaction records, and STRs for at least 5 years.
- No tipping-off prohibition on disclosing STR filings to customers or third parties.
- Travel Rule obligations apply indirectly through BEAC Regulation N°01/CEMAC/UMAC/CM, requiring originator and beneficiary information for crypto-asset transfers consistent with FATF Recommendation 16 (threshold of approximately €1,000).
Key Restrictions
- Total prohibition on issuance, trading, holding, and any other activities related to crypto-assets by any person or entity subject to the CEMAC financial regulatory framework (BEAC Circular No. 001/GR/2022).
- Exchanges, custody providers, payment processors, and all other VASPs are prohibited from operating.
- No license or registration pathway exists for VASPs — the activity is banned outright, not regulated.
Key Risks
- Total prohibition means operating an on-shore VASP in Equatorial Guinea would be illegal — enforcement risk includes criminal sanctions and asset seizure.
- BEAC Circular No. 001/GR/2022 cites concerns about financial stability, consumer protection, ML/TF, and capital flight, signaling aggressive enforcement posture.
- No application or licensing process exists, so there is no lawful pathway to become compliant.
- Tax obligations (PIT 2-35%, CIT 35%, VAT 15%) technically apply to any crypto income but are unreachable because the underlying activity is prohibited.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Obligation to Report: VASPs must establish systems to detect and report suspicious transactions.
Reporting Authority: Reports are submitted to the national Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).
A virtual-asset travel rule binds Equatorial Guinea through art. 42 of Règlement n° 02/24/CEMAC/UMAC/CM du 20 décembre 2024, which requires the originator's virtual-asset service provider to obtain and transmit accurate originator information and required beneficiary information, requires the beneficiary's provider to obtain, retain and disclose it to the authorities, and fixes the occasional-transaction threshold at 500 000 FCFA. The instrument was adopted by the Comité Ministériel de l'UMAC, not by BEAC, which has issued no virtual-asset instrument.
Règlement n° 01/CEMAC/UMAC/CM was adopted on 11 April 2016 and concerns the prevention and suppression of money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation, not crypto-asset activities; the 27 March 2022 date and the attribution to BEAC are fabricated, and the text was repealed by Règlement n° 02/24/CEMAC/UMAC/CM du 20 décembre 2024.
Art. 42 of Règlement n° 02/24/CEMAC/UMAC/CM du 20 décembre 2024 sets the CEMAC virtual-asset transfer threshold at 500 000 FCFA for occasional transactions and imposes the originator and beneficiary information duties directly, rather than deferring to international standards; no CEMAC instrument contains the quoted phrase or a USD or EUR 1 000 threshold.
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.
No — on-shore VASP operation is not permitted in Equatorial Guinea because BEAC Circular No. 001/GR/2022 imposes a total prohibition on all crypto-asset activities, and no licensing or registration regime exists to authorize such services.
Questions this verdict aims to answer
- What license(s) are required to operate locally?
- What capital, governance, and reporting obligations apply?
- What is the application process and timeline?