Regulations Concerning the Licensing and Operations of Electronic Payment Services in Liberia 19.0 DATA PROTECTION 19.1 All e-payment service providers shall maintain privacy and confidentiality of customer information and data, unless sharing customer information and data is authorized by the customer or on a court order or in keeping with the AML/CFT Regulations for Financial Institutions in Liberia. 19.2 The conditions under which c ustomer information and data will be kept shall be disclosed before the customer enters into agreement with the Authorized Institution. 19.3 Provisions of data protection including confidentiality shall be in tandem with all relevant laws. PART III. THIRD-PARTY SERVICE PROVIDERS AND OPERATORS 20.0 ROLE OF THE NATIONAL ELECTRONIC PAYMENT SWITCH 20.1 Transactions processed by third party payment service operators (PSO) serving as intermediaries body (Switch) will be processed by the National Electronic Payment Switch and settled by the CBL amongst their participants. The CBL shall settle PSOs through their designated licensed commercial banks. 20.2 At no point in time should the PSOs have access to or hold the consumer’s or participant’s funds. 20.3 The National Electronic Payment Switch (NEPS) shall act as the National Payment Gateway for the retail sector of the financial industry. 20.4 As the Payments Gateway for the industry, NEPS shall establish communication network for reliable data traffic that shall satisfy the service and availability standards and expectations of the industry on a cost-effective basis. 20.5 All interoperable payment transactions shall be routed through the National Electronic Payment Switch (NEPS) and shall not under any condition be routed outside Liberia except in the case of transactions not supported by the NEPS. 21.0 SWITCHES (SWITCHING COMPANIES) 21.1 To achieve the interconnectivity and interoperability of switching companies and, all switching companies shall open their networks for reciprocal exchange of transactions/messages with the National Electronic Payment Switch (NEPS). 15