The Banking Commission of the West African Monetary Union published sanctions totalling 900 million FCFA on Wednesday, 14 October, against three banks based in Côte d’Ivoire, Niger and Senegal, for breaches of their regulatory obligations.
Each institution received a reprimand and a fine of 300 million FCFA. The decisions were taken during the session of 29 and 30 September, after hearings with the executives concerned. The regulator does not disclose the names of the sanctioned banks.
In all three countries, it identified weaknesses in governance, risk management, and mechanisms to combat money laundering, the financing of terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
The bank based in Niger is also cited for shortcomings regarding prudential standards. The detailed grounds for the Ivorian and Senegalese institutions do not mention this additional complaint.
The fines fall under the second and third categories of breaches provided for by the instruction of 16 May 2018 on monetary penalties, the Banking Commission specifies.
The supervisory board had met at the headquarters of the BCEAO in Dakar, chaired by its governor Jean-Claude Kassi Brou. In its communiqué of 6 October, it had announced that it had imposed disciplinary and financial sanctions, without specifying the countries concerned or the amounts.