MAURITIUS Law and Practice Contributed by: Valerie Bisasur, Jean-Vincent Dacruz and Shane Mungur, BLC Robert & Associates
2. Authorisation 2.1 Licences and Application Process In Mauritius, “banking business” (as defined below) is a regulated activity, and an entity intending to conduct such business activities must be licensed to do so by the BoM. An applicant may engage either in banking busi - ness, Islamic banking business, digital banking business or private banking business. “Banking business” means the following. • The business of accepting sums of money, in the form of deposits or other funds, whether such deposits or funds involve the issue of securities or other obligations howsoever described, withdrawable or repayable on demand or after a fixed period or after notice. • The use of such deposits or funds, either in whole or in part, for: (a) loans, advances or investments, on the own account and at the risk of the person carrying on such business; and (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 instruments available to customers – this includes such services as are incidental and necessary to banking. “Islamic banking business” means any financial business, the aims and operations of which are – in addition to the conventional good governance
cy Act 2009 and the Income Tax 1995), other legislation is also relevant to the banking section, as set out below. The National Payment Systems Act 2018 regu - lates and places under the BoM’s supervision the national payment systems and payment systems operated in Mauritius, primarily for the purpose of ensuring their safe, secure, efficient and effective operation and accessibility to the public. Pursuant to the Public Debt Management Act 2008, the BoM can issue and manage loans issued by the government. The Mauritius Deposit Insurance Scheme Act 2019 provides for a scheme to: • protect insured depositors of a bank or non- bank deposit-taking institution by providing insurance against the loss of insured depos - its; and • contribute to the stability of the financial sys - tem in Mauritius by ensuring that depositors have prompt access to their insured deposits, in the event of failure by a bank or non-bank deposit-taking institution. The Financial Services Act 2007 provides for the establishment of the Office of the Ombudsper - son for Financial Services to receive and deal with complaints from consumers of financial ser - vices against financial institutions. The recently proclaimed Virtual Asset and Ini - tial Token Offering Services Act 2021 provides a comprehensive legislative framework for regulat - ing the business activities of virtual assets ser - vice providers and initial token offerings.
350 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook