Loi du 9 juillet 2018 relative aux systèmes de paiement et de règlement-titres (Law of 9 July 2018 on Payment and Securities-Settlement Systems) (DRC)

The Law of 9 July 2018 on payment and securities-settlement systems is the primary legislation governing the payments infrastructure of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Unlike the CEMAC states, the DRC is not part of a regional monetary union for these purposes: it has its own currency (the Congolese franc) and its own central bank, the Banque Centrale du Congo (BCC), which administers and oversees the national payments framework under this Law. The Law provides the modern legal foundation for payment systems, payment instruments and securities-settlement systems in the DRC, and is the umbrella statute on which the BCC's implementing instructions on electronic money, payment service providers and interoperability rest. It defines payment systems and settlement systems and sets the conditions for their establishment, operation and oversight; confers on the BCC the power to authorise, regulate and supervise system operators and participants; and establishes core legal protections essential to safe payments, notably the finality and irrevocability of settlement and the enforceability of netting arrangements, which protect the system against the insolvency of a participant. It provides the legal basis for the regulation of means of payment, including electronic and digital payment instruments, and for the BCC's supervision of providers operating in the payments space. By modernising the legal regime, the Law underpins the DRC's financial-inclusion and digital-payments agenda, including the development of electronic money, mobile money and, more recently, a national interoperability switch. The BCC gives detailed effect to the Law through implementing instructions, including the instruction on electronic money and electronic-money establishments and the instruction on interoperability of electronic payment systems and participation in the national monetary switch. Supervision and enforcement are exercised by the BCC, which licenses and oversees operators and participants and may impose sanctions for non-compliance. As the foundational payments statute for the DRC, this Law is the national counterpart to the CEMAC regional payment-systems regime. (Original language: French.)

1. 1Primary national legislation establishing the legal framework for payment, payment-instrument and securities-settlement systems in the DRC
2. 2Confers on the Banque Centrale du Congo the power to authorise, regulate and oversee payment-system operators and participants
3. 3Establishes settlement finality, irrevocability and enforceability of netting to protect against participant insolvency
4. 4Provides the legal basis for regulating electronic and digital means of payment
5. 5Underpins BCC implementing instructions on electronic money, payment service providers and interoperability
6. 6Places supervision and enforcement with the BCC, including sanctioning powers