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Oliver Kazunga, Senior Business Reporter
THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has fined Cash Twenty Four (PVT) Limited ZWL$2,5 million for being involved in illicit foreign currency transactions and breaching the conditions of its trading licence.
The Apex is yet to come up with a determination pending investigations on Credconnect, whose trading licences was also withdrawn at the same time with that of Cash Twenty Four over similar allegations.
A few weeks ago, the Reserve Bank also withdrew the trading licences of the two financial institutions pending investigations into the alleged accusations.
In a latest update regarding the above matter, RBZ said: “Both Cash Twenty Four and Crediconnect were referred to the Financial Intelligence Unit, which upon carrying out further investigations, has charged both for not adhering to anti-money laundering requirements, inter alia, failure to record and report transactions, as required by the law.”
The Central Bank said the two institutions carried out several off-book foreign currency purchases and sales, which they did not declare in periodic regulatory returns.
“Cash-Twenty Four has since admitted the charge of failing to record and declare foreign currency transactions and has since paid the imposed administrative fine of ZW$2,5 million. “The case against Crediconnect is still pending determination,” it said.
Furthermore, RBZ said it has identified two more bureaux de change, namely, Shons Finance Services (Pvt) Limited (Shons Finance Services) and Superdeal Enterprises (Pvt) Limited trading as Kwik Forex (Kwik Forex), which have not been declaring or have been under-declaring their foreign exchange transactions, in breach of the law.
The bank has also identified three unlicenced entities, namely Stallion Financial Services(Pvt) Limited (Stallion), Forbes Financial Services(Pvt) Limited (Forbes) and Juso Global (Pvt) Limited (Juso Global), which have been trading in foreign currency.
“The bank has, with immediate effect, suspended the operating licences of Shons Finance Services and Kwik Forex, pending further investigations and regulatory action.”
The monetary authority has referred the unlicenced entities (Stallion, Forbes and Juso Global) to the Financial Intelligence Unit for further investigation and appropriate action in terms of the law.
Meanwhile, the Financial Intelligence Unit has frozen all the accounts of all the above-mentioned entities.
RBZ said it continues to monitor nancial services players with a view to dealing effectively with market indiscipline.
@okazunga
Online Reporter