Règlement n° 03/16/CEMAC/UMAC/CM du 21 décembre 2016 relatif aux systèmes, moyens et incidents de paiement (CEMAC Regulation No. 03/16 of 21 December 2016 on Payment Systems, Means and Incidents)

REGIONAL INSTRUMENT, CEMAC zone. Regulation No. 03/16/CEMAC/UMAC/CM of 21 December 2016 on payment systems, means and incidents is the foundational payments-infrastructure regulation for the six member states of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC): Cameroon, Chad, Congo (Republic), Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Central African Republic. It is adopted at the regional level by the Ministerial Committee of the Central African Monetary Union (UMAC) and administered by the Bank of Central African States (BEAC), the common central bank. Rather than each member state legislating separately, this single regulation governs payment systems and means uniformly across the monetary union; it is recorded here once under Cameroon (BEAC's headquarters and the largest CEMAC economy) to avoid six near-identical entries. The Regulation modernises and replaces the earlier 2003 CEMAC payments framework. It provides the legal basis for the region's core payment infrastructure operated by BEAC, including SYGMA (Système de Gros Montants Automatisé), the real-time gross settlement system for large-value payments, and SYSTAC (Système de Télécompensation en Afrique Centrale), the automated retail clearing system for mass payments. It establishes the legal regime for means of payment, cheques, transfers, direct debits, cards and electronic payment instruments, setting rules on their issuance, validity and processing. A central feature is the system for the centralisation of payment incidents (notably cheque and card incidents), enabling region-wide reporting and consultation of incidents to combat fraud and protect the integrity of payment instruments. The Regulation also addresses the finality and irrevocability of settlement, the rights and obligations of participants, and the oversight powers of BEAC over systems and participants. By harmonising payment-systems law across the CEMAC zone, it creates the infrastructural and legal backbone on which subsequent digital-payments and payment-services rules, in particular Regulation No. 04/18 on payment services, are built. Supervision and oversight are exercised at the regional level by BEAC, with the regional banking commission (COBAC) supervising regulated institutions, and enforcement operating uniformly across all member states. (Original language: French. Regional scope: all six CEMAC member states.)

1. 1Single regional regulation governing payment systems and means uniformly across all six CEMAC member states
2. 2Provides the legal basis for BEAC's SYGMA real-time gross settlement system and SYSTAC retail mass-payment clearing system
3. 3Establishes the legal regime for cheques, transfers, direct debits, cards and electronic payment instruments
4. 4Creates a region-wide system for the centralisation and consultation of payment incidents to combat fraud
5. 5Sets rules on settlement finality, irrevocability and the rights and obligations of system participants
6. 6Confers payment-system oversight on BEAC, with COBAC supervising regulated institutions across the zone