Its Official: Bond Notes are Not Equal to USD

Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor John Mangudya revealed the Monetary policy. Some of the highlights included pricing of goods, Economy requires rightsizing, nostro accounts, cash shortages and foreign investment to name a few.

When he introduced the bond notes, Mangudya said the fiat currency would trade at par with the United States dollar, something critics questioned from the onset. In October 2018 premiums on the United States dollars had risen to 140% on the back of increased demand from companies sourcing foreign currency from the parallel market amid fears the continued depreciation of the bond note will quicken inflation.

Yesterday, the RBZ had come to terms with the fact that bond notes are not at par with the green back .Hence the central bank has instructed banks to now separate the Nostro foreign accounts and local RTGS or Bond with effect from 15 October 2018. YES into USD accounts and bond/RTGs notes accounts. Since the introduction of bond notes, US dollars and RTGS or Bond were held in one account.

With the new regulation banks will be able to have two accounts a USD account and a Bond/RTG accounts.

RBZ has given banks until mid this month to create separate foreign currency accounts for nostro and real time gross settlement (RTGS) accounts as part of measures to preserve value for foreign currency earners and to boost market confidence.