The Virtual Assets Act of 2023 became operational last month, empowering the Bank of Namibia (BoN) to license and regulate Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) and Initial Token-Offering Service Providers (ITOSPs).
This makes Namibia the third Sub-Saharan African country to take bold legislative steps to regulate this sector and fully protect the public against potential risks.
“The Act attempts to reduce the risks associated with investing in virtual assets, which the Bank has previously warned the public against. It is important to regulate virtual assets, virtual asset activities, and VASPs as these also, besides opportunities, have AML/CFT/CPF, financial stability, and monetary policy implications. The move to prudently and AML/CFT/CPF regulate virtual assets thus is a major step to provide greater legal and regulatory certainty to both the public and the financial services industry,” BoN Governor Johannes !Gawaxab said on Monday.
!Gawaxab, further emphasised that “new technologies, products and related services have the potential to spur financial innovation and efficiency and improve financial inclusion, but they also create opportunities for criminals to launder their proceeds or finance their illegal activities. Therefore, the ability of the monetary system to function effectively depends on the public’s confidence in the system”.
The Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) will continue to carry out the Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism and Proliferation (AML/CFT/CPF) registration, licensing and supervision role over the industry.
“The main objective is to ensure effective prevention and combatting of Money Laundering, Terrorist and Proliferation financing as well as other financial crimes and abuse of the financial system. For this reason, VASPs and ITOSPs must comply with AML/CFT/CPF obligations in the Financial Intelligence Act, 2012 (Act No. 13 of 2012), as amended,” the bank said.
BoN said virtual currencies will not enjoy legal tender status such as that accorded to the Namibia Dollar, rather, the acceptance of virtual currencies for the payment of goods and services will be at the discretion of any merchant and buyer willing to participate in such an exchange or trade.
To ensure a comprehensive and easily implementable regime, the Bank is also in the process of finalising rules, which contain operational requirements for the VASPs and ITOSPs.
The rules include but are not limited to cybersecurity, travel rules, capital, cyber and risk requirements. The Bank will thus be conducting consultation processes for the said rules during this month with the industry players.
The law comes after Namibia was evaluated by the Eastern and Southern African Anti-Money Laundering Group (ESAAMLG) and Financial Action Task Force.
Namibia was found to have made substantial technical progress since its first evaluation in 2005, but there remains significant room for improvement on the overall level of effectiveness of the National Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism and Proliferation policy and legislative regime.
Namibia is making frantic efforts to fully comply with anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism regulations to avoid it being greylisted.
Non-compliance could result in Namibia being grey listed by the Financial Action Task Force, which could have significant consequences for the country’s financial system. Reputational harm could reduce foreign direct investment, impact capital flows and increase due diligence costs.
