Établissement de paiement — Tunisia

The Tunisia category mapped to payment processing and cross-border remittance.

Resident payment institution (établissement de paiement) licensed by the Banque Centrale de Tunisie under loi n° 2016-48 (arts. 10 and 20) and Circulaire n° 2018-16. An EP provides payment services for the account of its customers: opening payment accounts of levels 1–3 (art. 14 Cir 2018-16), cash deposits/withdrawals, direct debits, funds transfers, remote and electronic payment operations, and the commercialisation of prepaid electronic-money instruments issued by banks or la poste tunisienne (art. 2 Cir 2018-16). Dual-mapped to PAYMENT_PROCESSING (the core payment-service activity) AND REMITTANCE_XBORDER: art. 4 Cir 2018-16 allows an EP to receive inbound funds transfers from abroad and make them available to its customers only after obtaining intermédiaire-agréé status under the exchange-control regulation (inbound only; the per-entity intermédiaire-agréé quality is not published — publish at category grain). The EP 'wallet' is legally a compte de paiement (a three-tier payment account, art. 14 — level 1 balance capped at 500 TND / 250 TND daily withdrawals), NOT monnaie électronique: EPs do NOT issue e-money — issuance is reserved to banks and la poste tunisienne (loi arts. 9–10, 20), so e-money issuance is a structural absence of a non-bank issuer category. Payment services must be provided exclusively in Tunisian dinar and within Tunisia (art. 2 Cir 2018-16). Minimum capital 5,000,000 dinars (loi art. 32). The register is the BCT commission d'agréments' dated decisions ledger, which publishes no registration numbers → keyed on the agrément decision reference. The official French edition is quoted (lang fr); the Arabic JORT text legally prevails.

Maintained: this official source is re-checked on a weekly schedule — last checked 2026-08-04 · unchanged since the previous check.

Licensed providers

7 entities

#	Provider	Status (as reported)	Licensed / granted	Source	Source date
1	ENDA CASH (also written Enda tao, Enda Cash)	licensed	2022-08-29	Banque Centrale de Tunisie	not dated
2	First Pay	licensed	2024-07-01	Banque Centrale de Tunisie	not dated
3	OFT Tunisie (also written OFT)	licensed	2026-01-29	Banque Centrale de Tunisie	not dated
4	PAYVAGO (also written Payvago)	licensed	2023-02-02	Banque Centrale de Tunisie	not dated
5	VIAMOBLE (also written Viamobile)	licensed	2021-04-01	Banque Centrale de Tunisie	not dated
6	WAFA CASH (also written Wafacash, Wafa Cash)	licensed	2022-10-07	Banque Centrale de Tunisie	not dated
7	ZITOUNA (also written Zitouna Payment, Banque Zitouna)	licensed	2021-11-24	Banque Centrale de Tunisie	not dated

Reading the tables

not dated: — the official source publishes no date of its own. We show our own last-checked date instead of inventing one for the regulator.

Licence requirements

What it takes to hold this licence, as stated in the cited official instruments. Capital and fees are shown in the currency the statute itself uses.

Requirement	As published	Source	Source date
Minimum capital	5 000 000 dinars (TND) minimum capital for an établissement de paiement, per loi n° 2016-48 art. 32; the capital must be fully paid up on creation. Verbatim “les établissements de paiement et dont le capital ne peut être inférieur à 5 000 000 dinars”	Loi n° 2016-48 du 11 juillet 2016 relative aux banques et aux établissements financiers — art. 20 (EP perimeter), arts. 28–32 (agrément process + timeline), art. 31 (société anonyme), art. 32 (capital)	2016-07-15
Local presence / incorporation	An établissement de paiement is a resident financial institution and, like any bank or financial institution with its head office in Tunisia, may only be constituted in the form of a société anonyme (public limited company). Verbatim “Toute banque ou établissement financier soumis aux dispositions de la présente loi ayant son siège social en Tunisie ne peut être constitué que sous la forme d'une société anonyme.”	Loi n° 2016-48 du 11 juillet 2016 relative aux banques et aux établissements financiers — art. 20 (EP perimeter), arts. 28–32 (agrément process + timeline), art. 31 (société anonyme), art. 32 (capital)	2016-07-15
Timeline	The commission d'agréments rules on the application within a maximum of four months of the communication of all required information (agrément de principe or a reasoned refusal); the applicant then has six months (extendable by three exceptional months) to satisfy the conditions; the commission delivers the agrément définitif within two months of the applicant's completion filing. Verbatim “Dans un délai maximum de quatre mois à compter de la date de communication de tous les renseignements et documents exigés, la commission d'agréments se prononce sur la demande d'agrément, soit par une décision accordant au requérant un agrément de principe, soit par une décision de refus motivée. … Le demandeur de l'agrément doit remplir ces conditions dans un délai ne dépassant pas six mois à compter de la date de la notification de la décision d'octroi de l'agrément de principe. A titre exceptionnel, ce délai peut être prorogé de 3 mois.”	Loi n° 2016-48 du 11 juillet 2016 relative aux banques et aux établissements financiers — art. 20 (EP perimeter), arts. 28–32 (agrément process + timeline), art. 31 (société anonyme), art. 32 (capital)	2016-07-15
Local ownership	No such requirement: The loi n° 2016-48 and Circulaire n° 2018-16 impose no EP-specific local-shareholding or nationality cap (the loi's general prise-de-participation regime, arts. 34+, applies to any bank/financial institution).	Loi n° 2016-48 du 11 juillet 2016 relative aux banques et aux établissements financiers — art. 20 (EP perimeter), arts. 28–32 (agrément process + timeline), art. 31 (société anonyme), art. 32 (capital)	2016-07-15
Fees	A value has been located but not yet verified, so we don't publish it here.	—	—
Ongoing obligations	An EP must provide its payment services exclusively in Tunisian dinar and within Tunisia, and must contract professional-civil-liability insurance or a bank guarantee sufficient for its activity (methodology pre-approved by the BCT and reviewed annually); customer funds are safeguarded in a compte global held at a bank, independent of the EP's own accounts (loi art. 21). Verbatim “Les services de paiement doivent être fournis exclusivement en dinar tunisien et à l'intérieur de la république tunisienne. … les établissements de paiement doivent contracter une assurance de responsabilité civile professionnelle ou une garantie bancaire d'un montant suffisant”	Circulaire n° 2018-16 du 31 décembre 2018 — règles régissant l'activité et le fonctionnement des établissements de paiement — art. 2 (services in TND, within Tunisia), art. 3 (professional-liability cover), art. 4 (inbound foreign transfers), art. 14 (comptes de paiement niveaux 1–3)	2018-12-31

Requirements as published in the cited instruments — not legal or compliance advice. Where a value is located but not yet verified, we show that it exists but don't publish the figure. Verify directly with the regulator.

The equivalent in other markets

Categories mapped to the same normalized activity — fintech:PAYMENT_PROCESSING:

Cross-border rules for Tunisia →