Fintech & digital payments rules in Malawi (2026)

The Payment Systems Act, 2016 regulates payment, clearing and settlement systems, payment instruments, remittance service providers, electronic money transfers and card issuers, and prohibits operating without RBM licence or authorisation.

The Reserve Bank of Malawi is the designated authority overseeing the safety, efficiency and integrity of payment systems and issuing licences/authorisations and directives to system operators.

The gazetted Payment Systems (E-money) Regulations set out specific requirements for e-money providers, applying an activities-based licensing approach (banks and non-banks alike must be licensed) and prescribing transaction/balance limits for subscriber, agent and merchant accounts.

Non-bank payment service providers are being licensed under the regime; for example pawaPay obtained an RBM PSP licence, and providers such as Flutterwave, DPO and Paychangu operate under RBM authorisation.

RBM interoperability directives require all PSPs to connect to the National Switch (NatSwitch); ATM (2015) and POS (2016) interoperability were followed by Instant Electronic Funds Transfer launched via NatSwitch effective 1 December 2022 for real-time 24/7 interbank transfers.

Malawi has no dedicated open-banking framework or specific Buy-Now-Pay-Later rules; these activities fall outside the current payments/e-money regime and remain effectively unregulated or addressed only indirectly.