RBZ cuts ZIPIT transfer limits

Harare, (New Ziana) – The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) on Thursday cut daily and monthly amounts bank account holders can transfer using the ZIPIT platform in a bid to tame illegal foreign currency trading.

The amounts were reduced to ZW$20 000 a day from ZW$100 000 and from a possible ZW$3 million a month to ZW$100 000.

ZIPIT, short for Zimswitch Instant Payment Interchange Technology is a platform that enables instant inter-bank funds transfers between Zimswitch member institutions.

Most of the country’s banks are on the ZimSwitch, the country’s sole national electronic funds switch and clearing house, which processes domestic card based and other electronic transactions amongst member financial institutions in real time online.

The FIU said absence of set monthly ZIPIT limits gave room for illegal foreign currency dealers to conduct their trade.

“The FIU has noted KYC (Know Your Customer) shortcomings in the ZIPIT system that make it difficult for banks, regulators and law enforcement agencies to speedily identify counterparties to a transaction, or to identify multi-banked users,” the FIU said.

“Until such time when adequate safeguards are built into the ZIPIT system to minimize the money laundering risk, ZimSwitch is directed to implement, with immediate effect, daily, monthly ZIPIT limits of ZW$20 000 and ZW$100 000 respectively.”

The RBZ arm said the new limits “have been arrived at cognisant of the reality that very few Zimbabweans earn more than ZW$100 000 per day, and those who do have other payment options available for higher value transactions.”

Illegal foreign currency trading is giving monetary authorities sleepless nights as it is fuelling inflation, devaluing the value of the local currency.

While the official exchange rate is fixed at USD1:ZW25, the parallel market fetches anything between ZW55 to ZW64 per greenback.
New Ziana