Category: Banking
BancABC VISA card services “partially” back online after a days-long outage
BancABC has had some serious issues with its Visa services. On the 25th of October, BancABC said on Twitter that its Visa card services were down and the outage continued until Friday according to a statement put out by BancABC CEO Dr Lance Mambondiani this afternoon. In the last few days we suffered a serious […]
Nedbank Zim sponsors first Uncommon.org innovation hub to happen outside Harare
Nedbank Zimbabwe has partnered with Uncommon.org to support the organisation’s first innovation hub to take place outside Harare. “We are absolutely delighted to partner with Nedbank Zimbabwe to launch our first Innovation Hub outside of Zimbabwe’s capital city, Harare. The Nedbank Innovation Hub is located in the Emganwini township, not far from Bulawayo’s city centre […]
Telecash & OneMoney are still issuing high-risk magstripe cards
As far as I know, I have never owned a Telecel line and seeing as y’all were upset that I was “bashing” the country’s smallest mobile network operator for its 15% Teleceash bundle discount, I’ve decided to become a Telecel subscriber. Getting the line was simple enough and it’s cheaper than getting an Econet line […]
BancABC’s VISA card services have been down for 48 hrs
BancABC’s has been struggling with its VISA platform over the last couple of days. On the 25th the Atlas Mara financial institution announced that it was facing some nondescript challenges with its VISA card platform. Please be advised that our Visa card services are currently not available 😔. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused. […]
Stanbic is offering home loans for Zimbos in the diaspora
Stanbic Bank is committed to playing its part in assisting Zimbabweans in the diaspora to build and own houses back home through its mortgage finance facility tailor-made for people living abroad. The facility called “Diaspora Home Loans” is part of a wider mortgage finance plan by the financial services institution whose goal is to ensure […]
Steward Bank’s new local remittance service is charging 2%!
EcoCash Holdings Zimbabwe’s banking division, Steward Bank, has joined the local remittance or money transfer game. At this point, it’s hard not to assume that the folks over at Steward saw the success of City Hopper and decided to get in on the action. In their defence, the market is there and the pie is […]
BancABC first bank to benefit from Mastercard & ZimSwitch partnership
Late last year ZimSwitch announced that it had partnered with Mastercard to “enable the modernization of Zimbabwe’s payment infrastructure”. The collaboration between the two set out to offer embossed cards, digital payment solutions, a loyalty platform, fraud and risk management and much more. After more than a year of silence, we have finally seen what […]
Stanbic Bank avails US$21.6 mil loan for Beitbridge Border Post project
Stanbic Bank and its parent company, Standard Bank Group recently availed a USD21.6 million loan facility for the sprucing up of the Beitbridge Border Post and its environs. The loan facility was availed to a concession holding company Zimborders Mauritius (Zimborders) towards the rehabilitation and modernisation of Zimbabwe’s side of the Beitbridge Border Post as […]
RBZ to clamp down on ZW$ card swipe for USD money changers
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s (RBZ) Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) has put out a directive for banks to report those who are using local currency card swipe transactions to facilitate illegal USD exchanges. The statement by the FIU on card swipe for USD forex deals is as follows: ABUSE OF DEBIT CARDS TO FACILITATE ILLEGAL […]
NBS Bank offering USD500 for school fees and professional exam fees at auction rate
National Building Society (NBS) Bank has a facility that is offering up to USD500 for school fees at the auction rate. This program is being done through the Bank’s Bureau de Change licence and here’s how you can get started. First, you’ll need to bring an invoice from your child’s school (or for your own […]
Steward Bank results: Auditor questions bank’s ability to continue in business
Steward Bank recently released its financial statements for the year ended 28 February 2021. Pouring through the abridged version of the audited accounts raised a few questions. At first glance it appears that Steward Bank might be in trouble. The first strike was that the audit opinion was qualified. Those that have a background in […]
Steward Bank adds Senditoo & Thunes as money transfer partners
EcoCash Holdings Zimbabwe’s banking division, Steward Bank, has announced that it has partnered with international money transfer or remittance services Senditoo and Thunes. The partnership is to further expand the bank’s footprint in the remittance space. As I am sure you are all aware, remittance figures have been at heights never before seen (US$1 billion […]
Standard Chartered Zimbabwe wins best digital bank for 2021
Global Finance Magazine named Standard Chartered Zimbabwe as the best digital bank in the first round of its annual Best Consumer Digital Bank Awards for 2021. Other categories in the first round included Best Corporate/ Institutional Digital Banks and the Best Islamic Digital Banks at the country level. Winners were selected in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Central […]
All remittance companies that operate in Zim service fees compared
Remittances continue to be on the rise even though there is a global pandemic. Last year money transferred to Zimbabwe through money transfer agents was just over US$1 billion. Now, there are a number of services both for Zimbabweans in the Diaspora to send money back home as well as for locals to send money […]
Dear government, threats make people mistrust the system more
Recently stakeholders in Zimbabwe’s health sector shared some concerning but not unexpected tidbits about Zimbabwe’s auction system. They said that it takes up to 10 weeks instead of the promised 24-48 hours for beneficiaries to receive their allocations. This naturally had negatively impacted their operations. Instead of listening to these and other concerns about the […]
FBC bank has increased Civil Servant loan limits
FBC Bank announced in a tweet that it has revised local currency loan limits and terms. Customer Notice: Increase in short term loan limits. pic.twitter.com/6sMlprSytj — FBC Holdings Limited (@FBCHoldings) September 16, 2021 “We are pleased to advise of an upward review of personal salary-based loans limits for civil servants and approved Deduct At Source […]
BancABC’s City Hopper has processed over US$10 mil in a year
BancABC today held a one-year anniversary celebration for its domestic remittance service City Hopper via Twitter Spaces. The talk was more of a victory lap and that isn’t to say it isn’t warranted. City Hopper has had an incredible year for a fledgling money transfer service. According to BancABC, they were able to move over […]
NMB is phasing out its *240# USSD in October
NMB Bank Zimbabwe has in a tweet announced that it is phasing out its old *240# USSD in favour of the closely numbered *241#. The bank is also doing away with the old NMB Banking app. pic.twitter.com/wj6yP3OFfQ — NMB Bank Zim (@NMBBankZim) September 17, 2021 Dear Valued Client, We advise that we will be phasing […]
FBC Bank internet banking platform is down
FBC Bank has, in a tweet, notified customers that its internet banking platform is down. Customer Notice: Internet Banking Platform Down. pic.twitter.com/JocSbAPDOK — FBC Holdings Limited (@FBCHoldings) September 17, 2021 Dear Valued Client, We regret to advise you that intermittent service is being experienced on our Internet Banking platform. Kindly bear with us as our […]
Here’s how much your bank charges for all ZWL$ account transactions & services
Following up on the article we posted on local currency swipe limits, we thought it would be interesting to compare all the major banks’ local (ZWL$) currency charges. The following is for the basic or entry-level personal accounts only. Charges are also for local currency accounts and where transactions are concerned the IMTT or 2% […]
NMB Bank is experiencing challenges with its *241# USSD
NMB Bank has, in an SMS to customers, announced that it is experiencing challenges with its *241# USSD. “Dear Valued Customer, we are currently experiencing challenges on USSD *241# for Econet subscribers. Our technical team is working to restore service. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.” NMB Bank via SMS We attempted to access the […]
All Zim banks daily debit card swipe limits
Following FBC Bank‘s announcement that it has increased its daily swipe transaction limits. We thought it would be prudent to look up all the other banks and see how their limits stack up against one another. Here are the figures we got from the respective banks’ customer services representatives. Bank Individual Daily Swipe Limit (ZWL$) […]
FBC Bank increases daily debit card swipe limits
FBC Bank has, in a tweet, announced that the daily limit for debit card swipe transactions has been increased. Good news: Swipe limits have been increased! Now you can swipe for much more with your local FBC debit cards. Go ahead and transact today!#YouMatterMost pic.twitter.com/IATwpWpasV — FBC Holdings Limited (@FBCHoldings) September 9, 2021 Old Limit […]
This Ecocash horror story shows how systems can fail you
Earlier this week I wrote about the need to make banks and Zimbabwe’s financial institutions accountable for some of the losses that people suffer through hacking and fraud incidents. There was a lot of debate on both sides, especially the more security conscious among our readers insisting that it’s the responsibility of account holders, not […]
Zimbabwean banking industry: Shame, Shame, Shame!
If you remember, the gallant RBZ announced that Zimbabwean banks were to start paying interest on savings accounts, effective 1 July. The RBZ sounded proud of this development as we could tell from the tone of their address. That was surprising. Every single person to ever be associated with banking in Zimbabwe should have been […]
Local software firm launches a core banking platform
Mugonat Systems Inc is a local software development and consultancy firm that provides enterprise software solutions, website services, mobile apps, e-commerce and chatbots. The company has announced that it has launched a core banking complement software called Cashlinq which it says was developed with the best technologies, security and international standards. The core banking complement […]
You can now collect Mukuru remittances at BancABC branches
BancABC has announced that you can now collect your Mukuru remittances at their branches nationwide. You can now collect your @mukurudotcom 💵 order at any @BancabcZW branch 🏦. Bring your National ID or Passport 🛂 and SMS received 📲 to collect you cash.💰 Collection is FREE! 😉 #Mukuru 💵#ATeam 😎 pic.twitter.com/sBWsjYobTw — BancABC Zimbabwe (@BancabcZW) […]
NSSA closes scores of pensioner accounts in a bid to weed out ghost accounts
Zimbabwe’s National Social and Security Authority (NSSA) has always been accused of harbouring a lot of ghost accounts on its books among scores of other improprieties revealed in several audits. Lately, they embarked on a mission to rectify this anomaly but they seemed to have bungled it. Now their latest attempt to clean the books […]
Steward Bank introduces another promo as the prepaid Visa/MasterCard wars heat up
Steward Bank has just fired another shot as the prepaid Visa and MasterCard war among banks continues to heat up. A few weeks ago we learnt of their competition where you could win as much as US$3 000 if you spend at least US$20 using your Steward Visa Globetrotter prepaid card. Now they have just […]
ZB introduces its own prepaid Visa promotion as banks scramble for customers
A few weeks ago we wrote about BancABC’s latest prepaid Visa promotion where you stand a chance to win a Chicken Hut meal if you order their prepaid Visa via Branch X. Now it seems ZB has entered the fray with their own promo as the scramble for customers heats up. Don’t look at me […]