Burkina Faso

Art. 76 protects employees and candidates from dismissal, sanction or discrimination for reporting or testifying about offences. Art. 77 punishes violence, reprisals or threats against witnesses, experts, whistleblowers and victims with 6 months to 5 years and a fine of 500,000 to 2,000,000 FCFA. Art. 79 punishes people who learn of offences through their role and fail to inform the authorities with the same penalty.

Art. 23 requires client identity, client-profile and due diligence records to be kept for ten years after the account is closed or the relationship ends, and transaction records for ten years after the transaction is executed. Records must allow individual transactions to be reconstructed.

Art. 12 requires persons subject to the law to adopt formal policies, procedures and controls to manage money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation risks, approved by senior management, and to designate one or more people to oversee them, with an independent compliance function where appropriate. Art. 13 adds internal-control duties for financial institutions.

Arts. 16-17 require identification and verification of clients and beneficial owners, Art. 18 sets the timing, Arts. 19-20 cover ongoing monitoring and Art. 26 covers legal persons and arrangements.

Art. 60 requires persons subject to the law to declare suspicions immediately to the CENTIF; Art. 2(58) defines 'sans délai' as a maximum of 24 hours. Art. 61 requires them to refrain from the transaction until the declaration is made, and Art. 63 keeps declarations confidential.

Art. 84 requires major operational incidents to be notified to the central bank and the Banking Commission without delay, followed by a detailed report within 72 hours. Art. 3(26) defines a major incident to include a service interruption of more than four hours and a security breach affecting systems or data.

Art. 28 requires the central bank and the Commission Bancaire to be notified at least 30 days before a critical operational function is outsourced. Art. 36 requires a risk analysis before signing, keeps data available at all times and requires secure deletion when the contract ends; Art. 37 sets the contract terms.

Art. 9 of Instruction n°001-01-2024 requires prior approval and listing before payment services are provided. Art. 11 sets minimum capital of 10 to 100 million FCFA depending on the service, and Arts. 17-19 set the application route and a six-month review period.

Art. 48 requires client funds to be identifiable separately in the accounts and not mixed with operating funds. Funds still held at the end of the next business day go to safeguarding accounts at banks or microfinance institutions and are reconciled daily.