Namibia -- AML/CFT Compliance Regulatory Overview

Namibia's AML/CFT framework rests on the Financial Intelligence Act 13 of 2012, which establishes the Financial Intelligence Centre and imposes registration, customer due diligence, record-keeping and reporting duties on accountable and reporting institutions; its amending instruments are the Prevention and Combating of Terrorist and Proliferation Activities Act 4 of 2014, Government Notice 339 of 2019 amending Schedule 1, the Abolition of Payment by Cheque Act 16 of 2022 and the Financial Intelligence Amendment Act 6 of 2023, effective 21 July 2023. No Financial Intelligence Amendment Act of 2017 exists, Act 2 of 2017 being the Access to Biological and Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge Act.

Namibia's Financial Intelligence Regulations were made under section 73(2) of the Financial Intelligence Act 13 of 2012 and published as Government Notice 3 of 2015 in Government Gazette 5658, in operation from 28 January 2015, and were amended by Government Notice 48 of 2021 and Government Notice 271 of 2023; no Financial Intelligence Regulations of 2017 were made. The Regulations prescribe the identification particulars for natural persons in regulation 6 and for companies and trusts in regulations 7 and 10, enhanced due diligence in regulation 15(3), a five-year record retention period in regulation 18(5), cash-reporting thresholds of N$99 999.99 and N$24 999.99 in regulation 23 and the originator and beneficiary particulars for reportable transfers in regulation 32.

Namibia's Prevention of Organised Crime Act 29 of 2004 creates the money-laundering, racketeering and criminal-gang offences and the confiscation, forfeiture and asset-recovery regime for proceeds of unlawful activities, and it has been amended by the Prevention of Organised Crime Amendment Act 10 of 2008, the Combating of Trafficking in Persons Act 1 of 2018 and the Prevention of Organised Crime Amendment Act 9 of 2023, which took effect on 28 July 2023.

Natural Persons: Obtain full name, date of birth, residential address, nationality, identification number (e.g., national ID, passport). Verify identity using reliable, independent source documents, data, or information (e.g., government-issued ID, utility bills).

Legal Persons/Arrangements (Companies, Trusts): Obtain name, legal form, proof of existence, powers that regulate and bind the legal person/arrangement, and the names of relevant persons holding senior management positions.

Beneficial Ownership: Identify and verify the identity of the beneficial owner(s) of the customer, ensuring that VASPs understand the ownership and control structure of the customer. This involves identifying the natural person(s) who ultimately own or control the customer, and/or on whose behalf a transaction is being conducted.

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

Ongoing Monitoring: 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, including, where necessary, the source of funds.

Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD): Apply EDD in higher-risk situations, which typically include:

Customers from high-risk geographic areas (as identified by FATF or FIC).

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

Transactions involving new technologies or products that favor anonymity.

Namibia already applies a virtual-asset travel rule: section 8.4 of Financial Intelligence Centre Guidance Note 11 of 2023, issued 30 June 2023 and effective 3 July 2023, requires a virtual asset service provider to obtain and transmit the originator's name, account number or unique transaction reference and address, identity number, customer identification number or date and place of birth, together with the beneficiary's name and account number or unique transaction reference, immediately and simultaneously with the transfer, for all virtual asset transfers regardless of amount, the EUR 1 000 de minimis having been dropped. A VASP transferring to an unhosted wallet must obtain the equivalent information from its own customer.

Namibia sets no monetary threshold for suspicious transaction reporting: section 33 of the Financial Intelligence Act 13 of 2012 requires an accountable or reporting institution that knows, ought reasonably to have known or suspects that it has received or is about to receive the proceeds of unlawful activities, or has been or is about to be used for money laundering, to report to the Financial Intelligence Centre irrespective of the size of the transaction, and the duty bites on transactions that are about to be concluded as well as completed ones. The threshold-based duties are the separate cash transaction reports under section 32, prescribed at N$99 999.99 by regulation 23(1) with a lower N$24 999.99 figure for banking institutions in regulation 23(2), and the electronic transfer reports under section 34.

Content of Report: The report must include all relevant information known to the VASP regarding the customer, the transaction, and the reasons for suspicion.

Namibia prohibits tipping-off: under section 33(3) of the Financial Intelligence Act 13 of 2012 an accountable or reporting institution or business that has made or is to make a suspicious transaction report may not disclose that fact, or any information about the contents of the report, to any other person save in the exercise of powers under the Act, for the administration of the Act or under an order of court, and section 46 of the Act creates the tipping-off offence.

Customer Identification Records: Copies of all documents used for customer identification and verification (e.g., ID cards, passports, utility bills, company registration documents).

Transaction Records: Details of all transactions conducted by the VASP, including amounts, types of virtual assets, dates, sender and recipient information, and any associated messages. This includes both successful and attempted transactions.

Business Relationship Records: Records pertaining to the establishment and duration of business relationships.

Analysis and Decision Records: Records of any internal analysis undertaken regarding suspicious activity, and decisions made regarding whether or not to file an STR.

STRs Submitted: Copies of all suspicious transaction reports filed with the FIC.

Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) Namibia

The Financial Intelligence Centre is Namibia's financial intelligence unit, established under the Financial Intelligence Act 13 of 2012, and it receives, analyses and disseminates financial intelligence and supervises accountable and reporting institutions, a population that since 21 July 2023 includes virtual asset service providers at Schedule 1 item 18.

The Bank of Namibia is the Regulatory Authority designated under section 5(1) of the Virtual Assets Act 10 of 2023 and licenses and prudentially supervises virtual asset service providers, while AML/CFT supervision of those providers rests with the Financial Intelligence Centre under the Financial Intelligence Act 13 of 2012.

The Bank of Namibia is designated as the Regulatory Authority under section 5(1) of the Virtual Assets Act 10 of 2023, which commenced on 25 July 2023, and it made seven sets of virtual asset rules gazetted on 1 September 2023 in Government Gazettes 8196 to 8202 as Government Notices 512 to 518.

Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC): Responsible for combating money laundering and terrorist financing. The FIC oversees AML/CFT compliance for "accountable institutions," which now include VASPs.

NAMFISA supervises non-banking financial institutions and runs a regulatory sandbox confined to crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending, and it holds no licensing or supervisory function over virtual assets, which the Virtual Assets Act 10 of 2023 assigns to the Bank of Namibia.

Namibia licenses digital asset custodians: Virtual Asset Custodian is one of six licence classes in Annexure 1 to the Capital and Other Financial Requirements rules, Government Notice 513 of 1 September 2023, with a minimum capital of N$2 000 000, and custodians are governed by the Custody of Client Assets Rules in Government Notice 515 of the same date.

The Bank of Namibia published its Revised Position on Virtual Assets and Virtual Asset Service Providers in August 2022, and that position paper was superseded by the Virtual Assets Act 10 of 2023, which commenced on 25 July 2023.

Section 7 of the Virtual Assets Act 10 of 2023 requires a virtual asset service provider, including a virtual asset custodian, to hold a licence, and the licensing authority is the Bank of Namibia as the Regulatory Authority designated under section 5(1).

The Bank of Namibia's August 2022 revised position states that virtual assets cannot be authorised as payment instruments under the Payment System Management Act and hold neither legal tender nor electronic money status in Namibia, and it admitted virtual asset service providers to the Bank's FinTech Innovation Regulatory Framework rather than to the national payment system.

Virtual asset service providers are accountable institutions under Schedule 1 item 18 of the Financial Intelligence Act 13 of 2012, as substituted by the Financial Intelligence Amendment Act 6 of 2023 published on 21 July 2023, and must register with the Financial Intelligence Centre in addition to holding a Bank of Namibia licence under the Virtual Assets Act 10 of 2023.

Rule 12(1) of the Custody of Client Assets Rules, Government Notice 515 of 1 September 2023, requires a virtual asset custodian to distinguish virtual assets held for one client from those held for any other client and from the custodian's own assets, so segregation of client digital assets is enacted Namibian law.

No Namibian instrument requires a virtual asset custodian to carry insurance or a bond; the Risk Management Rules in Government Notice 514 of 1 September 2023 make cover permissive, providing that a licence holder may make use of an insurance policy covering the relevant activities and services to mitigate its risks.

No Namibian instrument requires a virtual asset custodian to carry insurance or a bond; the Risk Management Rules in Government Notice 514 of 1 September 2023 make cover permissive, providing that a licence holder may make use of an insurance policy covering the relevant activities and services to mitigate its risks.

Cold storage is not mandated by Namibian law, although rule 5 of the Custody of Client Assets Rules, Government Notice 515 of 1 September 2023, requires a virtual asset custodian's hardware and software arrangements to address cryptographic keys, hard and cold wallet storage, password protection and encryption.

Namibian law uses no 'qualified custodian' concept, but it does separate custody from other virtual asset services: Virtual Asset Custodian is a distinct licence class in Annexure 1 to Government Notice 513 of 1 September 2023 with a N$2 000 000 minimum capital floor, governed by its own Custody of Client Assets Rules in Government Notice 515.

An entity providing safekeeping or administration of virtual assets in Namibia requires a Virtual Asset Custodian licence from the Bank of Namibia and is bound by the Custody of Client Assets Rules, Government Notice 515 of 1 September 2023, which are in force rather than pending.

Namibia's virtual asset framework is enacted rather than pending: the Virtual Assets Act 10 of 2023 commenced on 25 July 2023 and the Bank of Namibia gazetted seven sets of rules on 1 September 2023 covering advertising, capital and other financial requirements, risk management, custody of client assets, cyber security, statutory returns and client disclosure.

The Bank of Namibia introduced its virtual asset framework through seven sets of rules gazetted on 1 September 2023 as Government Notices 512 to 518, covering advertising, capital and other financial requirements, risk management, custody of client assets, cyber security, statutory returns and client disclosure.

Namibia enacted a dedicated digital asset statute, the Virtual Assets Act 10 of 2023, rather than amending its payments legislation, and the Bank of Namibia now exercises its payments mandate under the Payment System Management Act 14 of 2023.

Namibia brought its AML and prudential virtual asset regimes into force within days of each other in July 2023: the Financial Intelligence Amendment Act 6 of 2023 made virtual asset service providers accountable institutions on 21 July 2023 and the Virtual Assets Act 10 of 2023 commenced on 25 July 2023, with the Bank of Namibia's seven rules following on 1 September 2023.

NAMFISA's regulatory sandbox is confined to crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending and admits no virtual asset custody solutions; virtual asset services in Namibia are licensed by the Bank of Namibia under the Virtual Assets Act 10 of 2023.

Namibia's amending AML statute is the Financial Intelligence Amendment Act, 2023 (Act No. 6 of 2023), assented 19 July 2023 and published in Government Gazette 8139 under Government Notice 211 on 21 July 2023; its section 42(d) inserts virtual asset service providers as item 18 of Schedule 1 to the Financial Intelligence Act 13 of 2012, while the virtual-asset travel rule sits in section 18 of the Virtual Assets Act 10 of 2023.

The Financial Intelligence Amendment Act, 2023 (Act No. 6 of 2023) was assented on 19 July 2023, published in Government Gazette No. 8139 under Government Notice No. 211 on 21 July 2023, and came into force on 21 July 2023; it amends the Financial Intelligence Act 13 of 2012 to cover virtual assets and virtual asset service providers.

Section 42(d) of the Financial Intelligence Amendment Act 6 of 2023 inserts item 18 of Schedule 1 to the Financial Intelligence Act 13 of 2012, so that a person carrying on the business of a virtual asset service provider is an accountable institution subject to customer due diligence, record-keeping and reporting duties.

Section 18(2) and 18(3) of the Virtual Assets Act 10 of 2023 bar an originating virtual asset service provider from executing a transfer unless it is accompanied by the required information, and require the provider to obtain and hold accurate originator information and required beneficiary information and to keep it immediately available to the Bank of Namibia; section 18(5) leaves the content of that required information to rules the Bank of Namibia has not gazetted.

Namibia prescribes no statutory list of originator data for virtual asset transfers, because section 18(5) of the Virtual Assets Act 10 of 2023 delegates that content to Bank of Namibia rules; for electronic transfers of money, regulation 32(1) of the Financial Intelligence Regulations requires the originator's name, the originator account number or a unique transaction reference number, and the originator's address or national identity number, with no date of birth and no place of birth.

Regulation 32(1) of the Financial Intelligence Regulations requires the beneficiary's name and the beneficiary account number where an account is used for electronic transfers of money; Namibian law prescribes no wallet-address field, and section 18(5) of the Virtual Assets Act 10 of 2023 leaves beneficiary data for virtual asset transfers to Bank of Namibia rules.

Section 18(3)(a) of the Virtual Assets Act 10 of 2023 requires the originating virtual asset service provider to obtain and hold accurate originator information and required beneficiary information and to submit that information immediately and securely to the beneficiary virtual asset service provider, which must in turn obtain and hold it.

Section 27 of the Financial Intelligence Act 13 of 2012 and regulation 18(5)(a) of the Financial Intelligence Regulations require accountable institutions, which since Act 6 of 2023 include virtual asset service providers, to keep records for five years from the date the record was made, or longer where a competent authority so requests.

Section 56 of the Financial Intelligence Act 13 of 2012, as substituted by the Financial Intelligence Amendment Act 6 of 2023, empowers the Financial Intelligence Centre to impose a caution, a reprimand, a directive to take remedial action, a restriction on business activities, suspension of a licence, or a financial penalty of up to N$10 million.

The Financial Intelligence Act 13 of 2012, as amended by Act 6 of 2023, carries a maximum criminal penalty of a fine not exceeding N$100 million or imprisonment not exceeding 30 years or both, and the Financial Intelligence Centre's administrative financial penalty under section 56 is capped at N$10 million; the Namibian maximum term is 30 years, not 25.

Sections 49, 50 and 51 of the Financial Intelligence Act 13 of 2012 are headed protection of confidential information, protection of providers of information, and exhausting of other measures before penalties, and none of them imposes a penalty; the suspicious-transaction reporting duty and its penalty sit in section 33 and the administrative sanctions power sits in section 56.

The amending statute is the Financial Intelligence Amendment Act, 2023 (Act No. 6 of 2023), published in Government Gazette 8139 under Government Notice 211 on 21 July 2023, and no Act No. 5 of 2023 appears in the amendment history of the Financial Intelligence Act 13 of 2012.

The Financial Intelligence Amendment Act 6 of 2023 appears in Government Gazette No. 8139 of 21 July 2023 under Government Notice No. 211, and not in Government Gazette No. 8171 of 24 August 2023.

The Bank of Namibia's operative virtual-asset paper is the Revised Position on Virtual Assets and Virtual Asset Service Providers dated August 2022, which followed the Bank's 2017 and 2018 papers on distributed ledger technology and virtual currencies and was itself overtaken by the Virtual Assets Act 10 of 2023.

Namibia's second-round mutual evaluation report was adopted by ESAAMLG in September 2022 and published on 27 January 2023, and the third enhanced follow-up report of April 2025 re-rated Recommendation 15 on new technologies from Non-Compliant to Largely Compliant.