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Harare – The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) was forced to slash bank charges
on Sunday after aggrieved banking customers and activists embarked on a bank fees must
fall campaign.
The RBZ has asked banks in the cash-starved southern African country to reduce bank charges in line with cash shortages afflicting the economy.
This includes units of Standard Bank and Nedbank in Zimbabwe, as well as Old Mutual-owned CABS. Barclays, Standard Chartered and Ecobank constitute the country’s international and regional banks while local finance institutions such as CBZ Bank, ZB Bank and FBC Bank are also affected.
The
move comes after aggrieved depositors, fed up of being fleeced by banks,
started a social media campaign with the hash tag #BankFeesMustFall on
Thursday.
A
message explaining how banking customers were being robbed by banks
circulated on other social platforms such as WhatsApp, and activists had
also threatened to take the banks to court with regard to the
charges.
Posting
on her Twitter handle, lawyer and activist Fadzayi Mahere said she had
"met with a team of lawyers prepared to drive a class action against the
banks to challenge the grossly unreasonable, extortionate bank charges,"
among other issues.
"We are assembling a class of litigants from various banks to drive the suit. The intention is to target CABS, Stanchart and Stanbic initially because this is where our current pool of willing litigants is drawn from," she explained.
Prior to Zimbabwe’s cash shortages a few months ago, the banks were charging $2.50 for ATM withdrawals and about 3% (of the withdrawn amount) for cash withdrawals from inside banking halls.
“The Reserve Bank has reviewed cash withdrawal charges downwards with effect from 12 December 2016,” central bank chief John Mangudya said on Sunday.
The RBZ has now ruled that cash withdrawal charges be lowered. The new ATM cash withdrawal charges are as follows: 50 cents for $50 and $5 for $500, while over-the-counter withdrawals from banking halls are charged at 25c for $20, 63c for $50 and $2.50 for $200.
Mangudya explained it was noted that “while cash withdrawal limits have reduced significantly ... there has not been a proportionate reduction” in the levels of bank charges.
Zimbabwean banks are offering local bond notes to cover up for a dollar shortage that has resulted in long bank queues.
“In order to align cash withdrawal charges to amount withdrawn, a proportional pricing model has been adopted to replace the current fixed charges.
"The applicable charges for cash withdrawal is a maximum of 1% and 1.25% of amount withdrawn for ATM and over the counter respectively,” added Mangudya.
Zimbabwe has sunk into a cash crisis because of lower productive capacity and low exports. Its net importer status has also worsened the situation, with authorities saying the country has become a cheap source of hard currency.
The country has been using a multi-currency regime backed by the US dollar and calls for the adoption of the rand have been rejected by the government. The current dollar crunch has affected businesses, with companies unable to pay for crucial imports such as raw materials and equipment for production.
However, the central bank has authorised mobile money platform EcoCash to allow for cash-in and cash-out transactions in the SA currency.
