Fintech & digital payments rules in Mauritania (2026)

Law 2021-14 on electronic payment services and means (adopted 2021, published in the Journal Officiel) governs payment services, payment instruments and electronic money, and sets the conditions under which providers may operate in Mauritania.

The Banque Centrale de Mauritanie (BCM) is the supervisory authority; except for licensed banks, no entity may issue or distribute electronic money on a regular basis without prior BCM authorization, with conditions on ownership, shareholder solvency, capital and management integrity.

Non-bank payment institutions operate under the regime — for example Moov Money Mauritel SA is licensed by the BCM as a payment institution — confirming the framework is applied in practice, not merely on paper.

Licensed payment and e-money establishments must comply with anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorism-financing rules, identify clients before providing services, and follow BCM regulatory texts on user/e-money-holder protection; authorizations can be withdrawn for fraud or false information.

The national switch GIMTEL (members include the BCM, MAURIPOST and local banks) is being developed for interoperable retail electronic and mobile payments; a 2024 four-bank real-time P2P proof-of-concept and 2025 Visa Global Registry certification advanced full deployment, with World Bank/AfricaNenda technical support.

There is no dedicated open-banking mandate (GIMTEL is positioned as the future interoperability platform), and Buy-Now-Pay-Later offerings are early-stage with no specific BNPL regulatory framework reported as yet.