Country Manual Private Banking
Ethiopia
out of Bank’s Country of Establishment (Def, RS, BT & RT)
| Source of changes | Answers |
|---|---|
| Law / Regulation | Yes |
| New Position of the Authorities | No |
| Evolution of Expert’s Interpretation | No |
Regulatory Template, Regulatory Summary and Behaviour Template
Material changes
In June 2024, the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) Foreign Exchange Directive No. FXD/01/2024 was issued, according to which “Unless explicitly authorized by NBE, no Ethiopian national, natural or juridical person, residing in Ethiopia is permitted to own, possess or operate a foreign currency account abroad.”
The Directive only permits what it calls “strategic investors” to maintain offshore accounts for the purpose of making a limited number of payments to third parties.
These new restrictions, which have been highlighted in the Country Manual, make it very difficult to establish a private banking relationship and to operate an account.
In March 2025 the new Banking Business Proclamation No. 1360/2025 (“Banking Business Proclamation”), was published, replacing the Banking Business Proclamation No. 592/2008. This law opens the banking sector to foreigners and foreign banks but introduces no material changes to rules on financial cross-border services.
In relation to activity relating to debit and credit cards the answers for activity by remote means of communication are now NO rather than Grey zone/YES – following the issue of the revised Banking Business Proclamation in 2025 activity relating to a debit or credit card is banking activity (payment service) that is subject to licensing in Ethiopia and only allowed for locally authorised banks or payment service providers.
Non-material changes
Some content has been amended and/or slightly reworded (without introducing material changes) to reflect the regulatory situation/current interpretation of the regulatory framework more accurately.
BT Short Comparison
This document allows users to quickly identify the modifications made compared to the previous version of the PB Manual (BT Short Comparison). The BT Short Comparison can be found on BRP’s platform (mybrponline) in the Search tab by entering in the Document Field “CM PB BT SHORT COMP” and “ETHIOPIA” in the Target Country Field.
The BT Short Comparison should be read as follows:
The first column contains a short description of the activity in question. The second column contains the answers of the previous version of the Country Manual (online until the day of the alert). The third column contains the new answers of the most recent version of the Country Manual. Only the modified answers are displayed (in color). If the answers in the new version are unchanged compared to the previous version, they are shaded in grey.
For more information, please contact us: info@brpsa.com
Geneva, August 14th, 2025