The central bank said it would continue to monitor the
implementation of foreign exchange rules by the banks and apply
sanctions if they failed to meet the regulations.
Customers queue to draw money from an ATM outside a branch of South
Africa's Standard Bank in Cape Town, March 15, 2016.
Angola's central bank said on
Tuesday it will sanction seven financial institutions for failing to
comply with foreign exchange rules, but did not state the specific
breaches or the sanctions it would take.
In a
statement posted on its website, the central bank named the banks, which
include Angolan Bank SA Investments and the local unit of
Johannesburg-listed Standard Bank.
The banks were not immediately available to comment.
The
central bank said it would continue to monitor the implementation of
foreign exchange rules by the banks and apply sanctions if they failed
to meet the regulations.
The bank currently quotes
the kwanza at 166.711 per dollar, although the currency typically
trades at much weaker levels in the black market due to chronic
shortages.
Angola's economy has been hammered by
the drop in crude prices and an acute hard currency crunch, fueling a
thriving black market for the currency of Africa's top oil exporter
after Nigeria whose output has dropped after attacks on its pipelines.
In
April the central Bank of Angola said it had cut the amount of hard
currency travellers could take abroad to $10,000 from $15,000, under new
rules to cope with a decline in foreign exchange reserves.