BY STAFF REPORTER
THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has backed down from its directive to ban the cash-in and cash-out facility as well as the cash-back facility.
In a statement last night, RBZ governor John Mangudya notified payment system providers and agents that the cash-out facility was now capped at $100 per transaction with immediate effect, while existing operational cash-in and cash-back limits remained the same.
He said enhanced monitoring mechanisms had been put in place by the central bank and payment system providers to mitigate against abuse of payment systems and ensure abusers are brought to book.
“Furthermore, the Reserve Bank will be injecting cash into the economy without changing money supply. In this regard, banks will exchange existing RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement) balances for cash, thus maintaining the monetary base unchanged,” Mangudya said.
He said financial institutions and agents were required to adhere to the Know-Your-Customer and Customer-Due-Diligence principles for all their customers at all times and ensure that there is no abuse of the payment systems.
“Going forward, the Financial Intelligence Unit shall enhance monitoring of financial activities to ensure compliance,” the central bank boss said.
On Monday, the RBZ banned the cash-in, cash-out and cash-back facilities in an attempt to protect the transacting public from being fleeced by some mobile banking agents leveraging on and abusing the payment ecosystems.
