2024 – Instruction No. 001-01-2024 dated 23 January 2024 on payment services in the West African Monetary Union (the “Payment Services Instruction”)
Whilst this article does not intend to cover everything you need to know about the Payment Services Instruction, it will give you a glimpse of its most relevant provisions that you need to know with respect to the West African Economic and Monetary Union (the “WAEMU”) payment system environment.
• Definition of payment service provider: credit establishments, microfinance institutions, e-money companies and payment establishments.
• Definition of account aggregator: payment establishment that provides information services on accounts (e.g., this service allows a customer to have on one mobile app, all the information pertaining to its accounts held with various banks).
• Definition of payment initiation service provider: payment establishment that provides payment initiation services (i.e., initiating a payment order at the request of a customer with respect to an account held with another payment service provider).
• Banks are expressly authorised to provide payment initiation services and account aggregator services.
• Payment service providers are not allowed to have exclusivity provisions in their partnership agreements (for the provision of payment services) with third parties.
• In terms of processing personal data of customers, payment initiation service providers and accounts aggregators are all subject to personal data laws of WAEMU member states. But the Payment Services Instruction reinforces the fact that they need to obtain their customers’ consent before providing their services.
• Payment service providers are subject to an obligation to provide information to their customers (e.g., providing information on tariffs on their websites, ensuring that customers have access to the terms of service applicable to the payment services).