Tanzania has fined local lender National Bank of Commerce (NBC) for failing to establish a data centre in the country.
National Bank of Commerce is the second Tanzanian lender to be fined in the last two months for similar breaches.
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Last month, Diamond Trust Bank was penalised for violating rules on data and service availability.
The central bank of the country fined NBC TZS1bn ($435,000) for the failures.
“The Bank of Tanzania (BoT) has imposed a penalty charge of one billion shillings to National Bank of Commerce Limited (NBC) for failure to implement directives to establish either a primary or secondary data centre in the country,” Reuters quoted the central bank as saying in a statement.
It added that an additional fine of 10% of the penalised amount will be imposed on the bank every month until it complies with the central bank directives.
In 2014, BoT issued the first circular requiring the lenders to establish primary or secondary data centres in the country.
However, till date, several local lenders are yet to comply with the directive.
Last week, the central bank issued a three month deadline, following which hefty fines will be imposed on the lenders.
The objective of the move was to improve security. It will also help in ensuring availability of operations when data centres outside Tanzania cannot be accessed.
