daniel chigunwe
Business Writer
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has said in the wake of exchange rate manipulation by some borrowers of large amounts, it could publish names of “significant borrowers across the banking sector, in the public interest, in order to expose potential culprits.
The bank’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) also said it would launch an audit into the suspense accounts of banks, including accounts used by the institutions for their internal business, amid strong suspicion the accounts were used to speculatively trade in foreign currency.
This comes after President Mnangagwa last weekend announced a raft of measures to defend the local currency.
The measures include the ban on bank lending, introduction of a 4 percent tax on US dollar withdrawals, 40 percent tax on shares sold within 270 days, ban on transfers between brokers sub-accounts and clearance of auction forex backlog and use of interbank rate for pricing.
“We intend to carry out an audit of such accounts. To facilitate the planning of the audit, every bank is required to furnish the Financial Intelligence Unit with a list of all bank’s suspense accounts and other internal accounts used by the bank for its own transactions,” said FIU director Oliver Chiperesa in a circular to the banks;
“Subsequent to receiving this information, the FIU may request detailed bank statements for all or some of the accounts. The FIU will take a serious view of a failure to disclose any particular account as requested therein.”
Bongani Ndlovu