Rwanda
Regulations
This page provides AWS financial institution customers with information about the legal and regulatory requirements in Rwanda that may apply to their use of AWS services.
Yes. Financial institutions in Rwanda are permitted to use cloud services, provided that they comply with applicable legal and regulatory requirements, such as those described below.
The National Bank of Rwanda (BNR) is the primary supervisor and regulator of financial institutions in Rwanda. The BNR's mandate includes supervising banks, microfinance institutions, insurance companies, payment service providers, and pension schemes. The BNR is responsible for monetary policy, financial stability, consumer protection, and ensuring that financial institutions adhere to applicable regulatory standards.
The Capital Market Authority (CMA) is the regulatory body responsible for developing and regulating Rwanda's capital markets industry, including securities markets, commodities exchanges, and collective investment schemes.
Financial institutions in Rwanda may be subject to a number of different legal and regulatory requirements when they use cloud services.
The BNR, CMA and the National Cyber Security Authority (NCSA) have implemented a number of regulatory instruments to govern the use of cloud services. Key laws and regulations include the following:
• BNR Regulation No. 49/2022 on Outsourcing by Regulated Institutions
• BNR Regulation No. 50/2022 on Cyber Security in Regulated Institutions
• Law relating to the Protection of Personal Data and Privacy
• Law on Prevention and Punishment of Cybercrimes
Customers that have questions about the applicable regulations, and how these may apply to their use of AWS services, can reach out to their account representative.
Regulations are changing rapidly in this space, and AWS is working to help customers proactively respond to new rules and guidelines. AWS encourages its financial institutions customers to obtain appropriate advice on their compliance with all regulatory and legal requirements that are relevant to their business, including other local regulations, guidelines and laws.
AWS is committed to offering customers a strong compliance framework and advanced tools and security measures that customers can use to evaluate meet, and demonstrate compliance with applicable legal and regulatory requirements.
Financial institutions who are using or planning to use AWS services can take the following steps to better understand their compliance needs:
1. Consider the purpose of the workload(s) under consideration and the relevant categories of data in order to anticipate which legal and regulatory requirements may apply, including requirements under BNR Regulation No. 49/2022 on Outsourcing by Regulated Institutions and BNR Regulation No. 50/2022 on Cyber Security in Regulated Institutions.
2. Assess the materiality or criticality of the relevant workload(s) in light of local regulatory requirements. Financial institutions regulated by the National Bank of Rwanda (BNR) may be required to notify or obtain approval from the BNR prior to outsourcing material activities to AWS or other cloud service providers.
3. Consider applicable data localization and cross-border data transfer requirements. Under BNR Regulation No. 50/2022 on Cyber Security in Regulated Institutions, banks are expected to maintain primary data within Rwanda, although certain cloud-based arrangements may be permitted subject to BNR approval and continued regulatory access to relevant data and records.
4. Financial institutions should also ensure compliance with applicable cybersecurity obligations, including implementation of appropriate access controls, incident response mechanisms, cybersecurity governance frameworks, and reporting obligations.
5. Review the AWS Shared Responsibility Model and map AWS responsibilities and customer responsibilities according to each AWS service that will be used. Customers can also use AWS Artifact to access AWS audit reports and conduct their assessment of the control responsibilities.
6. Customers who have further questions about how AWS services can enable their security and compliance needs, or who would like more information, can contact their account representative.
Financial institutions in Rwanda using AWS should also consider applicable privacy and data protection requirements, including the Law relating to the Protection of Personal Data and Privacy (the “Data Protection Law”) and related regulations administered by the NCSA.
Customers should also consider applicable registration requirements, data subject rights obligations, cross-border transfer restrictions, breach notification requirements, and Data Protection Officer obligations under the Rwandan data protection framework.
The AWS whitepaper Using AWS in the Context of Common Privacy and Data Protection Considerations provides useful information to customers using AWS cloud services to store or process personal data.
If customers process or are planning to process the personal data of data subjects in the European Union (EU), they should visit AWS’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Center. More information on these requirements is included in Navigating GDPR Compliance on AWS.
Resources
General
Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) on AWS
This guide provides customers with information to be able to plan for and document the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance of their AWS workloads. This includes the selection of controls that meet specific PCI DSS requirements, planning of evidence gathering to meet assessment testing procedures, and explaining their control implementation to their PCI Qualified Security Assessor (QSA)..
Using AWS in the Context of Common Privacy and Data Protection Considerations
This document provides information to assist customers who want to use AWS to store or process content containing personal data, in the context of common privacy and data protection considerations. It will help customers understand the way AWS services operate, including how customers can address security and encrypt their content. The geographic locations where customers can choose to store content and other relevant considerations. The respective roles the customer and AWS each play in managing and securing content stored on AWS services.
AWS Compliance Quick Reference Guide
AWS has many compliance-enabling features that you can use for your regulated workloads in the AWS cloud. These features allow you to achieve a higher level of security at scale. Cloud-based compliance offers a lower cost of entry, easier operations, and improved agility by providing more oversight, security control, and central automation.
The purpose of this paper is to describe how AWS and our customers in the financial services industry achieve operational resilience using AWS services.
Data Classification and Secure Cloud Adoption
This paper provides insight into classification schemes for public and private organizations to leverage when moving data to the cloud. It identifies practices and models currently implemented by global first movers and early adopters, examines how implementation of these schemes can simplify cloud adoption, and recommends practices to harmonize national requirements to internationally recognized standards and frameworks.
AWS Policy Perspectives: Data Residency
This paper addresses: The real and perceived security risks expressed by governments when they demand in-country data residency. Commercial, public sector, and economic impact of in-country data residency policies with a focus on government data. Considerations for governments to evaluate before enforcing requirements that can unintentionally limit public sector digital transformation goals leading to increased cybersecurity risk.
This document is intended to provide information to assist AWS customers with integrating AWS into their existing control framework supporting their IT environment. This document includes a basic approach to evaluating AWS controls and provides information to assist customers with integrating control environments. This document also addresses AWS-specific information around general cloud computing compliance questions.
Guidelines for systematically reviewing and monitoring your AWS resources for security best practices.
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