Regulator profile ·
BCEAO — Banque Centrale des États de l'Afrique de l'Ouest
Tracked byBrokerlist Editorial · Independent review teamUpdated
The Banque Centrale des États de l'Afrique de l'Ouest (BCEAO) is the central bank of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA / WAEMU), serving 8 member states sharing the West African CFA franc (XOF). BCEAO supervises banking, monetary policy and foreign-exchange controls across the union; retail forex with foreign brokers is restricted under regional FX regulations.
- Jurisdiction
- WAEMU 8 member states · Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Togo, Guinea-Bissau, Benin.
- Founded
- 1962
- Mandate
- Established by the WAEMU Treaty (originally 1962, restructured under the 2010 reforms following the WAEMU Treaty revisions). BCEAO conducts monetary policy for the XOF zone, supervises banks under the Banking Commission of WAEMU (Commission Bancaire), and administers foreign-exchange controls under Regulation No. 09/2010/CM/UEMOA. Capital markets are supervised by the regional securities authority CREPMF.
- Consumer protection
- BCEAO administers a regional banking deposit-guarantee fund covering retail deposits at member banks (FGDR-UEMOA). Securities investors at BRVM (Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières) listed firms have separate protection via CREPMF's framework. No specific retail-FX compensation scheme — retail OTC forex with offshore brokers operates outside BCEAO's authorised perimeter.
- Retail leverage caps
- No retail forex leverage cap under BCEAO regulations because retail OTC FX with foreign counterparties is not authorised. BCEAO foreign-exchange controls cap individual outbound capital flows; speculative leveraged FX with offshore brokers operates in the legal grey market region-wide. Authorised intermediaries are limited to bank-mediated FX for permitted current-account purposes.
- Public register
- BCEAO publishes lists of licensed credit institutions and approved foreign-exchange intermediaries by country. Cross-reference CREPMF (Conseil Régional de l'Épargne Publique et des Marchés Financiers) for capital-markets intermediaries operating across the WAEMU region. Open register ↗
- Dispute resolution
- Disputes with banks are first handled internally, then can be escalated to BCEAO's national branches and ultimately the WAEMU Banking Commission. No region-wide ombudsman with binding powers; consumer recourse is heavily court-dependent. Civil law jurisdiction in each WAEMU member state.
- Editor notes
- BCEAO's 8-country mandate makes it one of the larger central-bank zones by population (~135M residents). Retail FX with offshore brokers is widespread despite restrictions — Exness, FBS and others onboard residents via offshore entities, accessed primarily through informal banking and crypto/USDT rails. French is the dominant business language across WAEMU; Portuguese in Guinea-Bissau is a minor exception.
Brokers we track with a BCEAO licence
No brokersNo tracked broker currently holds a BCEAO licence in our database.