CLYDE & CO UPDATER - NEW BANK OF TANZANIA REGULATIONS ON FINANCIAL CONSUMER PROTECTION

In this article, we provide an overview of the new Bank of Tanzania (Financial Consumer Protection) Regulations 2019 (the Regulations) which were published in Government Notice No. 884 on 22 November 2019.

In summary the new regulations:

1. Introduce a variety of protections for consumers in terms of how financial service providers offer, market and deal with complaints related to the financial services that they offer to consumers; and
2. Set out the powers that the Bank of Tanzania has in terms of enforcing non-compliance with the Regulations.

Key definitions under the Regulations

• Financial education means imparting financial knowledge, skills and influencing financial behaviour of consumers to enable them to manage their personal financial matters and make informed decisions
• Financial consumer protection means laws, institutions, practices and policies to safeguard consumer rights, enable consumers to make informed financial decisions and ensure fairness in the provision of products and services by financial service providers
• Financial service provider means an institution licensed, regulated and supervised by the Bank of Tanzania
• Senior management for the purpose of Regulation 6 includes the chief executive officer, head of function, any other senior officer reporting to the chief executive officer and any other person other than members of the Board of Directors who participates in making decisions that affect the whole or substantial part of the business of the financial service provider

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