The Central Bank of Angola has withdrawn the license of Banco Mais and Banco Postal, two small credit institutions that were unable to meet the new capital requirement by the stated deadline.

These two banks will thus “stop their operations”, the central bank indicated in a release.

Banco Mais and Banco Postal should be declared bankrupt and their respective liquidators would take care of clients’ deposits, the staff and other commitments of the two institutions, the same source explained.

In March 2018, the central bank announced the increase of the minimum capital requirement for local banks from 2.5 billion kwanzas to 7.5 billion kwanzas ($35 million). It also explained that banks should comply with the new regulation by December 31, 2018. Institutions that would be unable to meet the requirement were advised to consider   “other alternatives including mergers and sales of their operations to one or more authorized banking institutions”.