The currency crisis that Angola is currently experiencing is the main reason for the “non-progress” of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Interbank Services Company (EMIS) and MasterCard.
According to what Jornal Expansão reveals, the agreement signed a year ago between EMIS and Mastercard There are no plans to move forward with the issuance of debit cards that can be used outside the country. The exchange rate crisis due to the lack of foreign currency continues to hinder the initiative.
The partnership between the two institutions was signed with the aim of allowing the issuance of multi-brand MULTICAIXA/Mastercard debit payment cards, for use in Angola and abroad, but to date there has been no progress and there are no forecasts for its implementation.
With the current scenario of currency shortages in commercial banks associated with the exchange rate devaluation and the inconvertibility of the national currency, the return of these cards is unfeasible, admits a source from EMIS in an interview with the weekly, especially because banks try to control at all costs the currencies they can access on the foreign exchange market.
The agreement was signed by EMIS only because of “pressure from the National Bank of Angola (BNA) for political reasons, so that Angola appears in the statistics of countries that issue such cards and improve its image in the international forum”, said the source.
It should also be noted that the partnership would allow the coexistence of two brands on a single payment card, issued by Angolan Commercial Banks, which means that whenever the multi-brand debit card is used in national territory it will be considered as a “debit card”. MULTICAX“, and conversely, whenever it is used abroad, it will be considered a “Mastercard debit card”, and all operations will always be linked to the holder's payment account.
