The Central Bank of the Congo (BCC) launched a review of its register of non-bank financial intermediaries operating in the Democratic Republic of Congo in early December 2025, according to a series of notices published on its official channels.

In a notice dated Dec. 5, 2025, signed by First Vice-Governor Dieudonné Fikiri Alimasi, the central bank announced the removal of an entity known as Force-Unie Sarl from the list of authorised financial messaging services operating in the country.

Under Congolese law, a financial messaging service refers to a non-bank company that provides domestic or international money transfer services. Well-known operators in the sector include Western Union and MoneyGram.

The BCC did not disclose the reasons for the decision. It said the measure was taken pursuant to Articles 58 and 59 of Administrative Instruction No. 006, Amendment No. 2 of July 26, 2023, which regulates financial messaging services. Article 58 provides that such sanctions may be imposed in cases of serious or repeated breaches of legal obligations, money laundering, fraud, threats to public order, or insolvency.

Days earlier, in a notice dated Dec. 3, 2025, the First Vice-Governor had urged 50 financial messaging services to regularise their administrative status with the Financial Intermediaries Supervision Directorate by Dec. 18, 2025. Failure to comply would result in the withdrawal of their licences, removal from the official register, and dissolution.

A separate notice dated Dec. 4, 2025, targeted foreign exchange bureaus. In that document, 62 exchange bureaus were instructed to report to the same supervisory directorate to regularise their administrative situation by Dec. 19, 2025, or face licence withdrawal.

Taken together, the notices point to widespread non-compliance in the non-bank financial intermediaries sector. According to data published on the BCC’s website, 82 financial messaging services and 114 exchange bureaus are officially registered. The fact that 50 messaging services and 62 exchange bureaus were summoned to regularise their status suggests that more than half of the entities concerned may be operating irregularly, underscoring the scale of regulatory shortcomings and the urgency of the enforcement drive launched by the central bank.

The review forms part of a broader effort to tighten discipline in the foreign exchange market. The BCC has stepped up enforcement after identifying practices it considers incompatible with market rules, including the display of speculative exchange rates, excessively wide spreads between buying and selling rates, and various forms of market manipulation. These practices are prohibited under Administrative Instruction No. 007, Amendment No. 3 of 2023, which governs foreign exchange activities.

In a notice published on Oct. 13, 2025, the central bank reminded manual money changers of their obligation to comply with existing regulations. It also announced the deployment of on-site inspections and the introduction of disciplinary measures, including licence withdrawals, against exchange bureaus and manual money changers found to be in breach of foreign exchange market rules.

Timothée Manoke