Mauritania

Not yet checkedChecked 2026-11-14 · confidence low

We could not confirm the law or the regulator's list at a primary source. Banque Al Wava Mauritanienne Islamique (BAMIS) describes itself as an Islamic bank founded in 1985, but the central bank's site now loads only through a script we could not read, and the banking law was not read.

Five checks

Banking rulesNot checked

Not confirmed. An earlier pass read central bank pages saying it supervises Islamic banks and is adapting its monetary policy tools to Islamic finance, and listing Law 2018-036 bis on credit institutions. On 14 Nov 2026 those pages returned an empty shell to curl and WebFetch, so the wording could not be re-checked. The law text was not found at any readable source.

Licensed banks and windowsNot checked
  • Banque Centrale de Mauritanie
  • “la Banque Al Wava Mauritanienne Islamique (BAMIS) a été créée le 21 septembre 1985 sous le nom de Banque Al Baraka Mauritanienne Islamique”
    BAMIS
Sukuk issuedNot checked
Takaful (non-interest insurance)Not checked

Not confirmed. A search was run on 14 Nov 2026. The Ministry of Finance's report on the insurance market for 2022 (published December 2023) was downloaded and does not mention takaful. Press reports say takaful was named as a product to develop at a national insurance conference in December 2025. No takaful law or licensed takaful operator was found.

Capital market rulesNot checked

Not checked: no securities regulator site was reached.

Still open

Points we could not confirm at source yet.

  • Which law or regulation authorises Islamic banks and windows? Law 2018-036 bis (amended 2025) was not read.
  • Does the central bank's licensed list name BAMIS or other Islamic banks? An earlier pass found the list page marked as still being finalised.
  • BAMIS's home page shows a savings account with 'rémunération annuelle' and credit cards, but no product described as non-interest; its financing page returned an error.
  • What are the 'Bons Islamiques' (Islamic bills) on the central bank's site? A secondary source mentions BCM Instruction 01/GR/2025 defining an Islamic deposit facility and interbank murabaha; not verified.
  • Takaful and capital-market rules were unchecked.
Where we searched
  • bcm.mr: home, Établissements agréés, Instruments de politique monétaire pages return an empty JavaScript shell to curl and WebFetch (14 Nov 2026); content not readable. Querying the site's back-end data service was not attempted further.
  • bamis.mr: home and history pages (downloaded); financing and about pages returned HTTP 500
  • regalert.today (Mauritanian law texts): security checkpoint (not bypassed)
  • africa-laws.org: Law 2018-036 bis not found
  • Web search for Law 2018-036 bis text and BCM Instruction 01/GR/2025 on Islamic money-market tools (no primary text reached)
  • finances.gov.mr: Rapport sur le Marché des Assurances en Mauritanie, exercice 2022 (Dec 2023), downloaded; no mention of takaful