Browsing: Zimbabwe banks

Policy inconsistency driving up inflation in Zimbabwe

Countries

Banks provide working capital for the day to day running of the majority of corporate Zimbabwe. Most suppliers work on a 30 to 90-day credit facility where supermarkets get access to products and then pay for the merchandise later. With no line of credit, there has been a shock to the supply chain. A few days after the announcement, companies started issuing press statements stating their failure to honour pre-standing contracts. Within a week, certain products started disappearing from shelves.

Cooking oil, cornmeal, and sugar have vanished from supermarket shelves. A precedent that echoes the dreaded year 2008 when another policy inconsistency made supermarkets into ghost towns. Zimbabweans know the signs of a dying economy and remember how tough life became in 2008.…

CBZ Holdings Zimbabwe's Universal Banking champion

Universal Banking group CBZ Holdings leads the pack

Investing

Successful turnaround strategies are not new to Zimbabwe's largest universal banking concern.

CBZ has gone the distance from being characterized as a bank for crooks to the largest banking concern in the country. The majority of banks in the southern African country adopt the universal banking model instead of the niche or boutique bank model which was once ubiquitous globally.

The universal banking model's roots can be traced to the promulgation of the Glass Steagall Act on the 1930s which combined the activities of commercial banks and investments banks. Banking houses that adopt this universal banking model aim to be a one-stop financial services shop offering everything from consumer and corporate credit to insurance and investment products.

The trend in Zimbabwe has grown in popularity as a method of meeting regulatory compliance and attaining critical mass. Other banks in Zimbabwe following the universal banking model in Zimbabwe include FBC Holdings…

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Zimbabwe resurgence or is it a mirage?

Business

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) prefaced its policy review by stating that inflationary pressures have dissipated which it called conducive and supportive of its expected economic growth rate of 7.8 per cent in 2021. 

The policy review was characterized by optimism on the part of the monetary authorities as it painted a rosy economic outlook. The tone of the document was very upbeat with the RBZ expecting global economic recovery from the adverse effects of the coronavirus pandemic because of the stimulus packages whose effects it is expected will trickle down to emerging economies and special drawing rights (SDR) allocations adding up to US$650 billion. …