Law no. 40/20 of 16 December on the Payment System of Angola (LSPA)
Law no. 40/20 of 16 December on the Payment System of Angola (LSPA), which establishes the legal regime applicable to the oversight, regulation, management and operation of the Payment System of Angola.
We can see the regulation by that law of an issue that has been the subject of controversy in the banking sector, namely the execution of customer transactions, with the operation's support contracts for payment of services or goods in foreign currency (ME).
Particularly, and in addition to the difficulty that the Angolan market presents in obtaining ME, partly due to the economic recession that has been seen recently, it is our understanding that due to art. 550 of the Civil Code, in the final part (which I quote) "The fulfillment of pecuniary obligations is done in a currency that has legal tender in the country at the date it is made and at the nominal value that the currency at that time, unless otherwise stipulated," transactions based on contracts in which the payment currency would be ME could be freely performed.
However, and what the practice has shown us, is that these operations are / were often rejected by Banking Financial Institutions (IFB), under various pretexts.
To our satisfaction, LSPA, in its article 63, provides the following:
"1. Without prejudice to the rules applicable to the use of foreign currency or restrictions that may be determined by law or regulatory rules defined by the National Bank of Angola, payments are made in the currency agreed between the parties.”
LSPA considers IFBs based in Angola as Payment Service Providers, and as such, fulfilled the assumptions provided for in the aforementioned Law with respect to the Payment System stakeholders for the execution of a payment transaction – act initiated by the payer on your behalf, or by the beneficiary, to deposit, transfer or withdraw funds, regardless of any underlying obligations between the payer and the beneficiary – it seems clear, in the best opinion, that from now IFB clients’ s will be able to see their operations executed, when they derive from legal acts previously entered in ME, bearing in mind that, under the terms of LSPA, the parties (IFB and the payer/beneficiary) may freely agree on the currency to be used to carry out the transaction intended by the client (payer).