Latest Payments News: Bank Of Ghana Warns Remittance Firms Over Persistent Regulatory Breaches, and more

Catch up on some of the stories our payments compliance analysts have covered lately, and stay up-to-date on the latest news.

Bank Of Ghana Warns Remittance Firms Over Persistent Regulatory Breaches

Ghana’s financial watchdog has raised the alarm over persistent compliance failures in the remittance market and stated that firms failing to address violations will face sanctions.

In a notice published on July 29, the central bank said it had observed repeated violations of foreign exchange and remittance rules, despite previous cautions.

It said this constituted continued non-compliance with both the Foreign Exchange Act, 2006 (Act 723) and its Updated Guidelines for Inward Remittance Services.

Its warning was addressed to a range of relevant organisations, including banks, dedicated electronic money issuers (DEMIs), enhanced payment service providers (EPSPs), and money transfer operators (MTOs).

Violations that the bank identified included terminating inward remittances through unapproved channels, engaging in foreign exchange swaps in the context of remittance business, terminating remittances on behalf of institutions without prior approval and applying unapproved foreign exchange rates.

The Bank of Ghana said it will impose sanctions on offending institutions and revoke partnerships with MTOs that fail to comply with the established guidelines.

The notice reiterates that funding of local settlement accounts must strictly follow the section remittance guidelines.

It emphasises that all disbursements must be made from local settlement accounts in accordance with section 7.2(a), and any pre-funding arrangements between DEMIs or EPSPs and settlement banks must follow section 7.2(b).

As part of strengthened oversight, the regulator has mandated that all relevant institutions submit weekly reports for each MTO.

These reports must include a daily log of individual inward remittance transactions and the total daily foreign exchange credits into the relevant Nostro accounts.

A Nostro account is a bank account that a domestic bank holds with a foreign correspondent bank, denominated in the currency of the foreign bank.

Failure to submit accurate and timely reports will be considered a regulatory breach, the Bank of Ghana warned, adding that offending firms will face administrative sanctions.

CFPB Hits Pause On Open Banking Rule Rewrite

The US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is backing away from its earlier push to scrap a key open banking regulation, instead asking a federal court to pause litigation so it can develop a revised version of the rule.

In a filing submitted Tuesday July 19 to a federal court in Lexington, Kentucky, the CFPB said that it plans to undertake a new rulemaking process to substantially revise the regulation, which governs consumer access to personal financial data.

This shift comes after the agency had previously argued that the rule should be vacated in its entirety.

“In light of recent events in the marketplace, the Bureau has now decided to initiate a new rulemaking to reconsider the Rule with a view to substantially revising it and providing a robust justification” the filing says.

According to the filing, the CFPB “seeks  to  comprehensively  reexamine  this  matter  alongside stakeholders and the broader public to come up with a well-reasoned approach to these complex issues that aligns with the policy preferences of new leadership and addresses the defects in the initial Rule.”

The CFPB now intends to leave the current rule in place while it works on a replacement, and said that it wants to reexamine the matter alongside stakeholders and the public to arrive at a new approach that better reflects the policy preferences of current leadership and addresses concerns about the original version.

“The  Bureau  plans  to  engage  in  an  accelerated  rulemaking  process.  To  that  end,  within three weeks,  the  Bureau  plans  to  issue  an  advanced  notice  of  proposed  rulemaking  that  will  serve  as  the  starting  point  of  an  accelerated  rulemaking  process  that  the  Bureau  envisions  culminating in a new final rule that substantially revises the Rule under review.”

The rule, finalised in October 2023 under the Biden administration, was quickly challenged by bank lobbying groups such as the Bank Policy Institute.

Ukraine Adopts EU-Style Open Banking Rules

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has approved a comprehensive package of regulations to implement open banking in Ukraine, supporting the country's efforts to align with the EU.

The new framework, which will take effect from August 1, 2025, sets out rules for secure data sharing between banks, fintechs and other payment service providers (PSPs) via application programme interfaces (APIs), with user consent.

According to the NBU, account servicing payment service providers (ASPSPs) must comply with the regulation within five months of the implementation date.

The central bank approved three core regulations on July 25, 2025, under Resolutions No. 80, 81 and 82, to support the roll-out of open banking.

These measures define how banks and third-party providers will be required to operate in the new ecosystem, and are designed to bring Ukraine into alignment with EU standards.

In a related move, the NBU has also published a draft resolution to amend its oversight framework for payment infrastructure.

The proposed changes are intended to expand the central bank’s monitoring powers, clarify regulatory expectations, and guarantee alignment with recent legislative reforms.

The draft is open for public consultation until August 14, 2025.

EU Regulators Clarify Scope Of DORA Register Of Information

The latest Q&As from the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) aim to address confusion around the EU’s operational resilience framework and the expectations for the Register of Information.

The ESAs have published new clarifications on the scope and structure of the Register of Information under the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA).

The Register of Information is a mandatory inventory that financial entities, including payment and e-money firms, must maintain to document all contractual arrangements for ICT services and detail relevant group entities involved in ICT service provision.

The aim is to enable supervisors to monitor a range of key players involved in critical areas such as outsourcing across the financial sector.

In one Q&A, a consultancy firm queried a perceived contradiction in the European Commission’s Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2956, which sets out technical standards for the Register of Information under Article 28 of DORA.

Article 6 limits the register to financial entities and ICT intra-group service providers. However, a corresponding template includes a selectable category labelled “non-financial entity: other”, seemingly expanding the scope beyond what the regulation requires.

The ESAs have clarified that while the main objective of the template is to document all relevant financial entities, it must also capture non-financial entities where appropriate – particularly where they provide ICT services within the group.

These may include intra-group service providers (to be cross-reported in Template B_05.01) and non-financial entities that have contractual obligations to deliver ICT services on behalf of financial entities (to be reported in Template B_03.01).

AI Joint Venture Demonstrates UAE’s Digital and Financial Ambitions

The Middle Eastern state continues to harness financial services as an asset, moving to modernise its payments infrastructure through a public-private initiative involving the deployment of artificial intelligence (AI).

The Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates (CBUAE) and Presight, an AI and big data analytics company, have announced the launch of a strategic joint venture to deliver AI-powered platforms and services for the UAE’s core payment and financial systems.

The development reflects the UAE’s ambition to become a global leader in payments – and financial services more broadly – by creating a modern, forward-looking infrastructure that appeals to investors, banks and fintechs.

His Excellency Ebrahim Obaid Al Zaabi, assistant governor for monetary policy and financial stability at the CBUAE, welcomed the agreement, calling it a key step in strengthening the UAE’s financial resilience and technological leadership.

“This collaboration marks a strategic step toward ensuring the UAE’s financial market infrastructure remains resilient, secure, efficient and future-ready, while also supporting the accelerated transformation of the financial sector,” he said.

“By leveraging the leading role of the CBUAE’s Financial Infrastructure Transformation Programme and the technological expertise of Presight, this venture will strengthen the financial ecosystem of the UAE and the national economic stability, thereby enhancing the country’s position as a global financial hub.”

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