Banking Supervision

The supervision and regulation of banking institutions in Namibia is undertaken by the Bank of Namibia (The Bank). The legislative mandate vesting the power to the Bank to supervise the banking institutions is accorded through the Bank of Namibia Act 1997 and the Banking Institutions Act , no.2 of 1998 (BIA).

The BIA provides the “Bank” as referred to in Section 4 of the Bank of Namibia Act 1997, with the authority; to authorize persons to conduct business as a banking institution, to control, supervise and regulate banking institutions so as to protect the interests of persons making deposits with banking institutions. Further the BIA vests in the Bank with the powers, for the winding up or judicial management of banking institutions and for the cancellation of authorization.

In performing the above role, the Bank, through the Banking Supervision Department strives to ensure compliance with the BIA by banking institutions under its jurisdiction. In order to achieve the role of protecting the interests of depositors, the department has crafted a number of prudential requirements to be complied with by banking institutions. The prudential requirements advised on banking institutions are designed to limit risk taking to levels that are manageable and that do not place the individual banking institution and the banking system at risk.

To this end, a number of Determinations, circulars and directives have been issued to banking institutions. Further the operational contact that the Department maintains through its on-site examinations, off-site surveillance & analysis and in the regulatory policy formulations with the banking institutions makes for the achievement of the department’s supervisory objectives.