Ethiopia: Implemented National Bank's Licensing and Authorisation of Payment Instrument Issuer (Amendment) (Directive No. ONPS/06/2022) amending Directive No. ONPS/01/2020

On 28 February 2022, the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE)'s Licensing and Authorisation of Payment Instrument Issuer (Amendment) Directive No. ONPS/06/2022 entered into force. The directive amending Directive No. ONPS/01/2020. The amendments to the articles include replacing sub-article 1 of Article 8, which now mandates that payment instrument issuers implement systems and procedures to categorise and identify at least two types of accounts upon opening an electronic account. Sub articles 1(a) and (b) of Article 8 have also been replaced, setting maximum daily electronic account balances of ETB 5'000 for Level 1 accounts and ETB 30'000 for Level 2 accounts. Sub article 1(c) of Article 8 has been removed. New sub-articles have been added after sub-article (6) of Article 8, with sub-article (7) being renumbered as sub-article (9). These new sub-articles stipulate that the maximum daily electronic account balance limits may not apply to certain services, such as payments for airline tickets, salary payments, and utility payments. Furthermore, payment instrument issuers must ensure their systems can separate these services and establish robust internal controls to monitor the maximum daily electronic account balances. In Article 11, sub-article 2(b) has been replaced, requiring that for Level 2 accounts, the system must record the user's name, date of birth, residential or business address, telephone number, recent photo, and identity card. Sub-articles 2(d) and (e) have been renumbered as sub-articles 2(c) and (d) following the deletion of the former sub-article 2(c).