Comoros is a tiny island economy with a very small banking sector, and open banking is not a realistic near-term prospect. What connects it to the wider payments picture is its membership of the Southern African regional systems, which is where any future interoperability would come from.
Comoros is a small archipelago with only a handful of banks and limited financial infrastructure. Financial inclusion is low, cash is dominant, and the market is far too small to support a domestic open banking ecosystem. Basic access and reliable payments matter far more here than data sharing.
The regulator is the Banque Centrale des Comores. Like other members of the Southern African Development Community, Comoros is connected to the region’s payment systems: SADC-RTGS, the real-time settlement system run by the South African Reserve Bank, and TCIB, the low-value cross-border instant payment scheme that bridges into the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System. These regional rails, rather than any national initiative, are where the country’s payments modernisation is anchored.
There is no open banking framework in Comoros and no roadmap for one. With a tiny banking sector, low inclusion, and limited digital activity, the country lacks the scale and data that open banking depends on. The honest position is that this is not close, and the priority is expanding basic access to formal financial services.
For Comoros, progress will be incremental and largely regional: stronger connections to Southern African payment systems, wider access to bank and mobile accounts, and gradual growth in digital payments. Open banking is a distant prospect, and the realistic near-term work is building the basic foundations of a modern financial system.
Important Links
Open Banking Nigeria (Open Technology Foundation) is a non-profit backed by a group of industry experts across banking, fintech, risk management, and more to drive and launch the open banking standard in Nigeria.
