Bank Of Central African States

The Banque des Etats de l'Afrique Centrale (BEAC) is the central bank serving the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC). CEMAC is composed of six country members, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Republic of the Congo. CEMAC is a member of the larger African Economic Community. BEAC's official currency is the Central African CFA franc, which had an exchange rate that was formerly fixed to the French franc but is now fixed to the euro.

BEAC was established in 1972 under the official name Banque des Etats de l'Afrique Centrale (BEAC). The bank's head office is in Cameroon. The bank's role is to manage the region's monetary policy, issue currency, drive the exchange rate of the region, manage the foreign reserves of the member states and facilitate payments and settlement systems. The BEAC has also implemented macroeconomic convergence, which means it is attempting economic catch up, and monitoring mechanisms. The bank has also adopted a customs union and common external tariff, combined indirect taxation regulations and initiated structural and sector policies.

The BEAC has not been free of scandal. Philibert Andzembe of Gabon had been the governor of the BEAC from July 2007 until October 2009. Andzembe was fired by the new president of Gabon, Ali Bongo, after U.S.$28.3 million disappeared from the bank's Paris branch. A WikiLeaks memo dated July 7, 2009, stated that Gabonese officials working for the Bank of Central African States stole U.S.$36 million over a period of five years from pooled reserves and gave the majority of the money to members of France’s two main political parties. In late 2010, Lucas Abaga Nchama of Equatorial Guinea was the bank's new leader. 

In 2017, a new management team was announced, which included Abbas Mahamat Tolli from Chad and Dieudonné Evou Mekou from Cameroon who had been appointed at the 27th Special Session of Heads of State of the Economic Community of Central African States (CEMAC) in Malabo in late 2017.

According to the World Bank, the BEAC’s Strategic Plan was confirmed by the BEAC’s Board of Directors on December 21, 2017. The plan outlined reforms including implementing the monetary policy that was laid out in the operational framework adopted in 2015 by the Monetary Policy Committee; continuing information system acquisition research to obtain accurate and timely data; updating the legal framework for payment systems and infrastructure with a focus on electronic payments and e-money (monetary value stored on a digital device); improving financial analysis; stabilizing and increasing foreign reserve levels by controlling outgoing transactions and launching a gold monetization program and installing and integrating foreign exchange IT systems for better tracking.