The Central Bank of Seychelles (CBS) says it will introduce e-money regulation by June this year in order to encourage and support investment into the market.

CBS said the regulation is in line with its payment system modernisation plan, its Fintech strategy and the government’s digital economy agenda, and that it will implement other incentives to attract more people online.

Financial surveillance analyst at the CBS Cyril Benoiton said the regulation will provide more information on the licencing, reporting requirements and the applicable licences, offences, notification, fees and penalties.

Benoiton said, “The introduction to e-money serves regulation serves to open up the e-money ecosystem whereby potential investors have proper guidelines to follow when they want to be licenced for them to offer e-money related services within Seychelles while abiding by international guidelines. We do currently have e-money requirements (regulations) but these existing regulations are not granular enough to ensure that payment service providers are guided on the requirements for providing e-money.”

CBS governor Caroline Abel said moving towards a digital economy will allow for faster transactions and also provide more security and peace of mind to the public, services providers and business owners.

Abel warned that there are risks that come with moving towards a digital economy, and as such, the central bank has to address cyber security issues and ensure that policies and agreements are followed.

Abel was quoted by the local Seychelles Newspaper saying, “We want to make sure that cyber security is a major component in the implementation of such a project. All frameworks should be put in place to protect the consumers when we are encouraging them to move to digital economy. This will also create more businesses which we have not seen yet. With this pandemic (COVID-19), the world has been pushed towards digital economy. We also need to educate the population and make sure that the banks and businesses are still offering the necessary services to the public as there will always be a group of people who will not be able to use technology.”