The Bank of Mozambique has fined 15 financial institutions, including Portuguese-owned banks, for violations of sector legislation, it has said in a statement.

According to the list published by the institution on the Internet, the fines amount to a total of 158 million meticais (about two million Euros) and are intended to penalise mainly violations of law combating money laundering and terrorist financing.

A small portion (two and a half million meticais) is related to other types of non-compliance.

The central bank does not detail the reasons for each of the penalties in its communiqué and respective table, only saying that they relate mostly to the years 2015 and 2016.

The largest fine – a total of 32.8 million meticais (436,000 Euros) – was applied to Banco Único.

Banco Único is controlled by the South African bank Nedbank, with 50 percent plus one share of the capital. The second largest shareholder, with 30.23 percent, is Gevisar SGPS, a partnership between Portugal’s Visabeira and Corticeira Amorim.

Among the two largest banks in Mozambique, BCI was fined 24.2 million meticais (321,000 Euros) and Millennium Bim was sanctioned with 24 million meticais (319,000 Euros).

BCI is 51 percent owned by Caixa Geral de Depósitos and 30 percent by BPI, while Millennium Bim is 66.6 percent owned by BCP.

The Bank of Mozambique fined Moza Banco and Barclays 24 million meticais (319,000 Euros) each, while Banco Mais and UBA were fined 12 million meticais (159,000 Euros) each.

The central bank fined Capital Bank 3.2 million meticais (42,000 Euros) and Banco Oportunidade 800,000 meticais (10,000Euros).

A group of six other institutions (Ecobank, Letshego Bank, Vodacom M Pesa, Carteira Móvel, Limpopo Cooperative and BancABC) was fined a total of around one million meticais (about 16,000 Euros) for sundry other offences.

This is the first time that the Mozambican central bank has published a list of violating financial institutions and fines payable by each, the Mozambican Information Agency notes.