In the circular letter published on its website, the BNA said that contracting services outside the country may represent a high risk of foreign exchange fraud and facilitate the illicit movement of funds abroad, and highlights that "it has been detecting a high number of contracts suspected of capital flight and currency fraud ".
The regulator has therefore decided to issue guidelines that banks must observe when validating payments under service provision contracts, or invoices, as the case may be, to non-resident entities.
Banks must make, within 90 days, an evaluation of all their clients' active contracts under which payments are being made, to ensure their legitimacy, ceasing payments in doubtful cases.
In cases where there are signs of currency fraud, banks should approach the customer and ask for clarification.
The BNA's instructions also take into account "the need to ensure the legitimacy of foreign currency transfers abroad" and "the appropriate use of the country's scarce foreign currency resources".
"It becomes necessary to reinforce the need for bank financial institutions to carry out a rigorous assessment of the foreign exchange transactions of their clients' invisible entities, legal persons, considering their responsibility in this matter", he justifies.
As foreign exchange transactions for current invisibles, it takes place in acts, business or transactions related to travel and transfers, as well as payment for services and to provide between Angola and abroad or between residents and non-residents.
The circular letter focuses on current invisible operations that cover contracts for the provision of technical and specialized services carried out by non-resident entities and excludes foreign exchange transactions linked to contracts for the rental of means of transport, reinsurance and similar.
In addition to being required to comply with Notice no. 2/2020, of 9 January on the Rules and Procedures for Conducting Current Invisible Foreign Exchange Transactions by Legal Entities, banks must also consider other issues now enacted by the BNA.
These include "customer knowledge" for an "effective assessment of the legitimacy of the requested foreign exchange transactions", including a dimension of the historical business and foreign exchange transactions carried out in recent years and the types of services contracted abroad, namely the object of the contracts.
They must also evaluate the contracted services, complete the BNA, pointing out that these must be technical assistance services or specialized services, which are not available in Angola, such as those provided by qualified personnel in the legal, medicine, engineering, architecture, accounting, / teaching and equivalent.
"It is not recommended to hire one or more foreign workers through a service contract signed with each of them, when they recognize an employment relationship with a company with the foreign exchange resident entity entered into a service contract", he emphasizes still the regulator.
On the other hand, the contracting companies must have a nature, size, complexity and activity that justifies the contracting abroad, and the contracting of services abroad is not recommended by companies in the sector of trade in food products or other products that do not require assistance. technical or specialized professional services ".
As for the contracted entity, "it must be a company with proven technical resources in the sector" and "adequate personnel structure".
"It is not recommended to hire services from unknown companies, with a facade or without a history", the circular letter also mentions.
When the contracted entity is a company in the group of the contracting entity, the latter must be able to prove that the prices charged in the contract are market prices, adds the BNA.
The contract "may not contain vague, imprecise or indeterminate objects, such as" advice "," consultancy "," management "," marketing "or" acquisition ", among others" and have a term "consistent with its form", the same applies to your value.
