mobile money accounts. – once approval is obtained, mobile money is treated as a financial institutions business regulated under the fia. in 2013, the bou issued mobile money guidelines which stipulate the approval process for the mobile money services, as well as the roles and responsibilities of all parties involved. they address interoperability, system standards, competition, aml / cft, and supervision. they also stipulate the safeguards to protect customers among which are : bis central bankers ’ speeches – transactions must be real time and only carried out when the mobile money system is up and running, and must be authenticated by customers ’ pin numbers. the customer must receive confirmation of execution of the transactions. in case of sending mobile money, the sender must be able to verify the recipient ’ s name before completing the transaction. – the customer obtains a copy of terms and conditions of the service at the time of registration and must be given a minimum of thirty days ’ notice before any changes. – an agent must clearly display the identity and a dedicated telephone contact of the mobile money operator, the unique identification number of the agent, charges, notice that no charges are levied at the agent location, and a notice that the agent does not carry out transactions on behalf of customers – complaints handling and consumer recourse mechanisms. mobile money supervision bou has the powers to supervise the mobile money services. however, the mobile money operator has the duty to supervise its agents to ensure that agents conduct the business in accordance with the mobile money guidelines. periodic reports regarding the performance of the mobile money services are submitted to the bou. the bou developed a compliance matrix to assess the level of compliance and is developing supervision procedures for the mobile money services. collaboration with ucc the mobile money platforms ride on mobile networks and this called for regulatory collaboration with the telecom regulator, the uganda communications commission ( ucc ). first of all ucc has to allow telecos to provide mobile money as a value added service. secondly, ucc is responsible for ensuring network availability ( network system uptime ), which is necessary for mobile money services to run. ucc has also to ensure that there is no unfair competition, i. e. that telecos do not lock out, nor unfairly charge other mobile money service providers who wish to use their networks. as is standard practice, regulators enter into memorandum of understanding ( mous ) to mainly exchange regulatory information and also provide for other regulatory issues in

which they can collaborate. bou and ucc are discussing the essentials to be included in the mou. future developments we envisage that mobile money will become an integral part of the national payment system. the bank of uganda act is being amended to include powers of the central bank to regulate and supervise the payment systems, and a national payment systems legislation is being developed whereby payment service providers will be licensed by the central bank. once this legislation is enacted, payment service providers will be directly licensed as payment operators. bis central bankers ’ speeches