The law was passed this Wednesday during the 11th ordinary plenary session of the parliament's fourth legislative term with 186 votes in favour, four abstentions and no votes against.
According to its reasoning report, the National Bank of Angola (BNA), with the technical assistance of the World Bank (WB), saw the need to change and modernize the legal framework of the SPA to make it "increasingly robust, competitive, fair and transparent.
For the BNA, the growth of the payment system and its importance for the country's economic development "unequivocally impose the strengthening of regulations" in this area.
The Angolan central bank states that the SPA law, besides being focused on a regional integrated vision, through the adequacy of best practices in payment systems of SADC (Southern African Development Community) also welcomes the contributions proposed by the WB.
The law now approved also seeks to adjust the BNA's oversight powers, with the purpose, the report states, of ensuring "the effective functioning of payment systems to ensure the smooth processing of transactions".
According to the Angolan authorities, the SPA law should also curb "entities of dubious reputation" or that do not have sufficient requirements for the provision of payment services.
In relation to the information duties of the institutions supervised by the BNA, the explanatory report notes the "strengthening of the obligation for the interveners to register all operations" and the "extension of the period for filing information from electronic processes or microfilming of electronic transactions for the purposes of consultation or legal evidence".
The legal diploma also establishes the institute of bankruptcy "in view of the enormous importance that exists today, both in the area of the vicissitudes to which financial institutions are subject, as well as the legal repercussions that arise from the process".
MEPs also approved, on the whole, the draft law on the legal regime of free zones.
