Guyana’s banking and financial regulatory framework: what lenders and financial institutions need to know

The Bank of Guyana and the Financial Institutions Act

The starting point for lenders and other financial institutions in Guyana is the Financial Institutions Act 1995 (Act No. 1 of 1995), which came into operation on 29 May 1995, and the supervisory authority of the Bank of Guyana. On the Bank’s official account of the legal and regulatory framework, that Act created the framework for the regulation of banking business and other financial business, including licensing, paid-up capital, activity restrictions, supervision, and, following later amendment, the resolution of licensed financial institutions. The Bank of Guyana Act 1998 (Act No. 19 of 1998) establishes the central bank as an autonomous institution and, in the Bank’s words, places exclusive responsibility for the supervision and regulation of licensed financial institutions on the Bank.

The Bank’s statutory perimeter is wider than deposit-taking banks. It also supervises non-deposit-taking financial institutions under the Financial Institutions Act; money transfer agencies under the Money Transfer Agencies (Licensing) Act 2009; dealers in foreign currency under the Dealers in Foreign Currency (Licensing) Act 1989; and insurance business and pension fund plans, under the Insurance Act 2016 (brought into operation, with stated exceptions, on 16 April 2018). It oversees the national payments system under the National Payments System Act 2018, and credit-information sharing under the Credit Reporting Act 2010. The Financial Institutions (Amendment) Act 2018 replaced the former insolvency and winding-up part of the 1995 Act with a Part VIII on resolution of licensed financial institutions. The Deposit Insurance Act 2018 established a Deposit Insurance Scheme comprising a Deposit Insurance Fund and a Deposit Insurance Corporation.

The 2025 amendment: foreign representative offices

The most recent amendment identified for this note is the Financial Institutions (Amendment) Act 2025 (Act No. 3 of 2025), published in the Official Gazette (Extraordinary) of 25 February 2025. As reported on 17 February 2025, it introduced a new section 19A requiring a foreign financial institution to obtain the Bank of Guyana’s approval before establishing a local representative office. The Finance Minister, piloting the Bill, stated that a full presence would still require a full-service licence from the central bank. On 30 October 2025 the Official Gazette (Extraordinary) published two related instruments: the Financial Institutions (Foreign Representative Offices) Regulations 2025 (Regulations No. 12 of 2025) and the Foreign Financial Institutions Representative Offices Regulations 2025 (Regulations No. 11 of 2025). The conditions for approval, the activities a representative office may and may not undertake, and any reporting or closure requirements are those of those Regulations, which should be read in full. Broader reform proposals discussed publicly in 2024 should not be treated as enacted unless they appear in an instrument that is in force.

AML/CFT and credit reporting

Licensed financial institutions are also reporting entities under the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 (Act No. 13 of 2009). The Act provides for a Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU); for proceeds of serious offences to be identified, traced, frozen, seized and forfeited; and for reporting entities to take preventive measures. It has been amended on several occasions, including by the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (Amendment) Act 2023 (Act No. 15 of 2023), passed on 3 August 2023 and published in the Official Gazette (Extraordinary) of 16 August 2023.

By section 22(1) of the 2009 Act, the Bank is a supervisory authority with compliance oversight of reporting entities specified in the Fourth Schedule. The Bank’s official overview identifies the relevant activities as including the acceptance of deposits and other repayable funds from the public; lending, including consumer credit, mortgage credit, factoring and the financing of commercial transactions; dealing in foreign currency; issuing and administering means of payment; guarantees and commitments; money transmission services; and insurance business. The Bank supervises compliance with sections 15, 16, 18, 19 and 20 of the Act and has issued guidelines for entities under its supervision. Suspicious transaction reports are made to the FIU. Separately, the Credit Reporting Act 2010, as amended in 2016, requires a credit information provider, as part of its evaluation of a consumer’s credit risk, to obtain a credit report from the credit bureau before granting or renewing credit facilities. The Bank licensed Credit Info (Guyana) Incorporated on 13 August 2013 as the credit bureau in Guyana.

Taking and registering security

Security over immovable property is registered according to how the land is held. Mortgages of transports, leases and related interests are registered at the Deeds Registry, administered by the Deeds and Commercial Registries Authority. Where land is held under a certificate of title, a mortgage is filed as an encumbrance at the Land Registry. Where the borrower is a company, charges and debentures may also have to be registered with the Registrar of Companies. The Authority’s legislation guide points to sections 233 to 242 of the Companies Act, including registration with the Registrar and the ranking of a registered debenture as a mortgage.

Security over movable property is now governed principally by the Security Interests in Movable Property Act 2024 (Act No. 20 of 2024), passed on 18 December 2024 and published in the Official Gazette (Extraordinary) of 27 December 2024. It establishes a collateral registry, administered by the Deeds and Commercial Registries Authority, for the registration of security interests in movable property such as vehicles, equipment, inventory and receivables. The Authority’s Collateral Registry is a digital, publicly searchable platform. On 22 October 2025 the Department of Public Information reported the Attorney General as stating that the registry was fully operational, that earlier technical difficulties had been addressed, and that the Bills of Sale Act had been repealed.

A further statute has since been enacted. The Security Interests in Movable Property (Amendment and Validation) Act 2026 (Act No. 9 of 2026) was published in the Official Gazette (Extraordinary) of 30 July 2026. That is the instrument that followed the National Assembly’s passage of the corresponding Bill, as reported on 27 July 2026. As described when the Bill was presented, it allows non-electronic registration when the electronic registry is unavailable, validates good-faith registrations and administrative actions during earlier operational challenges, and extends the transitional period for registering security interests created under repealed legislation. The Gazette PDF of the Act is image-based, and this review has not extracted a delayed-commencement clause from a readable text. Under section 15 of the Interpretation and General Clauses Act (Cap. 2:01, L.R.O. 1/2022), an Act comes into operation on the date of its publication in the Gazette unless the Act or another written law provides otherwise. Counsel should confirm commencement from the Act itself, and should read the 2024 Act and the 2026 amendment together for priority, perfection and transitional rules.