MAURITIUS Law and Practice Contributed by: Gilles Athaw, Jason Barbe, Deeviya Rughooputh and Sushika Ramlugun, Bowmans
Recently, the Bank of Mauritius, through the Sustain- able Use of Natural Resources and Energy Finance Programme, which was developed by the Agence Française de Dévelopment , has been advancing its ESG agenda by integrating climate risks into financial regulations, enhancing institutional capacity and pro- moting sustainable investments, reinforcing its com- mitment to a resilient and environmentally sustainable financial system. The government has also expressed its firm inten- tion of decreasing its carbon footprint, by introducing several incentives for the financing of projects in the renewable energy sectors. From a retail perspective, the acquisition of fast charg- ers for electric vehicles, rainwater-harvesting sys- tems and photovoltaic systems for domestic use are fully tax-deductible. To make electric vehicles more accessible, hybrid and electric vehicles benefit from a reduced excise duty. A guideline on Climate-related and Environmen- tal Financial Risk Management has been published by the Bank of Mauritius and made effective as of 1 April 2022, with a view to assisting local financial institutions in embedding sound governance and risk management frameworks for climate-related and environmental financial risks within their existing risk management frameworks. 2. Authorisation 2.1 Providing Financing to a Company Banks According to the Banking Act 2004, no person is allowed to engage in banking business in Mauritius without a banking licence issued by the Bank of Mau- ritius. Banking business is defined under the Banking Act 2004 as: • the business of accepting sums of money, in the form of deposits or other funds, whether or not those deposits or funds involve the issue of securi- ties or other obligations howsoever described,
withdrawable or repayable on demand or after a fixed period or after notice; and • the use of those deposits or funds, either in whole or in part, for: (a) loans, advances or investments, on their own account and at the risk of the person carrying on that business; or (b) the business of acquiring, under an agreement with a person, an asset from a supplier for the purpose of letting out the asset to the person, subject to payment of instalments together with an option to retain ownership of the asset at the end of the contractual period; • paying and collecting cheques drawn by or paid in by customers and making other payment instru- ments available to customers; and • includes other such services as are incidental and necessary to banking. Procedures An applicant wishing to be authorised to operate as a bank must be a body corporate and must apply to the BOM using the prescribed form, accompanied by a non-refundable processing fee of MUR1 mil- lion (approximately USD22,039). Among other AML, cybersecurity and related prescribed procedures and requirements, including the minimum capital adequa- cy ratio which the applicant needs to adhere to, the applicant must show adequate substance in Mauritius by having a principal place of business in Mauritius. In terms of staffing requirements, the applicant must have at least ten suitably qualified full-time officers, including the CEO, the Deputy CEO and key functional heads. The estimated operational costs of the appli- cant must not be less than MUR25 million (approxi- mately USD550,976). Prior to start of operations, the proposed bank must have in place a core banking system and a full-fledged AML/CFT transaction moni- toring system and software. Non-Banks Moneylending activities are regulated by the Finan- cial Services Commission of Mauritius. The Financial Services Act 2007 provides that, subject to certain exemptions as provided under the Fifth Schedule of the Financial Services Act 2007, any person, other than a bank or a non-bank deposit-taking institution, whose business is that of moneylending or who pro-
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