By Own Correspondent| Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor John Mangudya has cinfirmed that bank balances for both RTGS dollars and FCA Nostros will remain the same and government will not raid anyone’s foreign currency account.

Last year the RBZ advised banks to separate foreign currency accounts and RTGS money.

Under the stewardship of former Governor Dr Gideon Gono, the RBZ was accused of raiding foreign currency from exporters’ accounts, but Dr Mangudya has assured account holders that all forms of money were safe in the bank, adding that there would be no changes in bank balances despite the recently announced changes through the monetary policy.

Said Mangudya:

“We have never raided anyone’s nostro account, our records can testify and we will not do so going forward.”

He said although banks agreed to start trading the RTGS dollars as $2,50 to US$1, going forward the rate will be determined on a daily basis by market forces.

“The bank rate will determine the rate on the market. We will arrange foreign lines of credit since demand will be greater than the supply of foreign currency. We need to cloud seed the market with foreign currency,

For the foreign currency dealer this is your opportunity to open formal bureau de changes and trade formally. We only have one Zimbabwe and should work together. The parallel market (street) rate is way too high because there is a risk premium, you can go to jail for 10 years.

We delayed presenting the monetary policy because we wanted to analyse all submissions from all sectors of the economy so that we speak to everyone, nothing else. Bulk of money in Zimbabwe is seating on the RTGS platform. We only have $437 million of bond notes.”-StateMedia