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Harare - British-owned Standard Chartered will not be closed anytime soon, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono said on Wednesday.
In a statement Gono said stakeholders and depositors of Standard Chartered Bank should not panic as the central bank had no plans of withdrawing its banking licence.
The statement was issued in response to threats made by Zimbabwe’s National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Board that Standard Chartered Bank and three mining companies, will be shut down “until such time that they comply with the law”.
The Board added that persons or businesses and government departments dealing with these companies “are by this statement given notice of the intention of Government to shut down these businesses until such time that they comply with the law”.
Gono was however quick to state the RBZ’s position on the matter saying that the central bank had no plans of violating the RBZ Act especially that of fostering liquidity, solvency, stability and proper functioning of Zimbabwe’s financial system.
“All stakeholders of the bank and indeed, of other banks are hereby advised not to panic or ... withdraw their funds from the bank as the central bank, which is the sole authority which issues and withdraws banking licences from players in the Zimbabwean financial sector, has not signalled any move in the direction intimated by NIEEB nor in any other way suggesting that Standard Chartered Bank will lose its business licence for any reason in the near future.”
He added that “destabilising a large bank such as Standard Chartered has serious systemic consequences that can lead to unintended results which are opposite to those that we would have hoped to achieve.”
Gono’s statement was copied to Finance minister Tendai Biti, chief secretary to the President and Cabinet, Misheck Sibanda, and NIEEB chairperson Mike Nyambuya.
Gono and the indigenisation authorities have been at loggerheads over the indigenisation of the banking sector.
In a statement Gono said stakeholders and depositors of Standard Chartered Bank should not panic as the central bank had no plans of withdrawing its banking licence.
The statement was issued in response to threats made by Zimbabwe’s National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Board that Standard Chartered Bank and three mining companies, will be shut down “until such time that they comply with the law”.
The Board added that persons or businesses and government departments dealing with these companies “are by this statement given notice of the intention of Government to shut down these businesses until such time that they comply with the law”.
Gono was however quick to state the RBZ’s position on the matter saying that the central bank had no plans of violating the RBZ Act especially that of fostering liquidity, solvency, stability and proper functioning of Zimbabwe’s financial system.
“All stakeholders of the bank and indeed, of other banks are hereby advised not to panic or ... withdraw their funds from the bank as the central bank, which is the sole authority which issues and withdraws banking licences from players in the Zimbabwean financial sector, has not signalled any move in the direction intimated by NIEEB nor in any other way suggesting that Standard Chartered Bank will lose its business licence for any reason in the near future.”
He added that “destabilising a large bank such as Standard Chartered has serious systemic consequences that can lead to unintended results which are opposite to those that we would have hoped to achieve.”
Gono’s statement was copied to Finance minister Tendai Biti, chief secretary to the President and Cabinet, Misheck Sibanda, and NIEEB chairperson Mike Nyambuya.
Gono and the indigenisation authorities have been at loggerheads over the indigenisation of the banking sector.
