THE total value of e-money wallet transactions in Fiji has surged to more than $2billion annually, says Reserve Bank of Fiji Governor Ariff Ali.
His comment follows Vodafone Fiji’s move to require users to submit supporting documents such as birth certificates, payslips, voter registration cards and FNPF/FRCS cards to maintain access to these services.
“The total e-money wallet transactions have grown substantially to more than $2billion in total transactions on an annual basis,”
Mr Ali said. “And we envisage the growth trend to continue.”
He said while the growth trend was encouraging, it was important that e-wallet service providers comply fully with the Financial Transactions Reporting (FTR) Act 2004 and E-money transactions in Fiji have topped $2 billion annually, says Reserve Bank of Fiji Governor Ariff Ali.
“This is important for several reasons,” Mr Ali said.
“Firstly, there has been a notable growth in cross border transactions.
Secondly, funds are now transferred from e-wallets into bank accounts while previously it was only from bank accounts into the wallets.
“Thirdly, the Fiji Revenue and Customs Service (FRCS) announced in the 2025-2026 national budget it would monitor e-wallet accounts for transactions. Failure to do so would result in fines and/or imprisonment.
“Lastly, the collection of customer information as part of their Customer Due Diligence (CDD) obligations plays an important part in protecting both consumers, payment platforms and the broader financial system from misuse, including risks related to financial crime and scams.”
Accounts not blocked
RESERVE Bank of Fiji Governor Ariff Ali has clarified that there is misinformation in the public domain regarding the blocking of e-wallet accounts.
His comments follow Vodafone Fiji’s move to require users to submit supporting documents such as birth certificates, payslips, voter registration cards, and FNPF/FRCS cards to maintain access to these services.
“Our understanding is that the current stance adopted is that the e-wallet limit would be reduced from $10,000 to $5000 for e- wallet accounts whose information are not updated,” Mr Ali said.
“We note that the services are still available to all customers that were onboarded on the respective e-wallet platforms.”
He said according to the feedback they received, majority of the customers had no issue with complying with the customer due diligence requirements.
He said the e-wallet product was initially set up as a financial inclusion product with limited functionalities and as such simplified customer due diligence requirements were issued for e-money account holders.
