WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2004-01-08 Posted By: Jan
From the News Archives of: WWW.AfricanCrisis.Org
Date & Time Posted: 1/8/2004 9:15:30 AM
Zim Financial meltdown worries SA"s banks
As alarms sound over the escalating crisis in Zimbabwe’s banking sector, three South African banks with major shareholdings in Zimbabwean banks Absa, Nedcor and Standard Bank have admitted to concerns over the stability of that country’s banking environment. With inflation rocketing past 600%, Zimbabwe’s banking system is showing cracks after Zimbabwe Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono said last month he would cease baling out troubled banks with inadequate liquidity. This sparked interest rate hikes and, last week, six of Zimbabwe’s 16 banks were suspended from the country’s settlement system for interbank debt because of concern that they could not pay the other banks. As public jitters over bank cheques grow, at least three major companies are now refusing to accept cheques from any Zimbabwean banks, according to a Zimbabwean bank source.
Amid criticism of President Thabo Mbeki for his policy of quiet diplomacy on Zimbabwe’s humanitarian and economic woes, this is a clear indication that the fallout has had a major effect on SA’s business sector. And for SA’s three banking giants with a stake in Zimbabwean banks, the crisis is a worry even though they say their institutions are safe from harm. Standard Bank owns Stanbic Bank Zimbabwe, and Greg Brackenridge, Stanbic director for Africa, said yesterday his bank was worried about the stability of Zimbabwe’s banking system. “Clearly, we have an interest in a stable financial system in Zimbabwe so this current issue is a concern for us on that level. But as an individual bank, we feel we have conservative lending policies so we don’t feel we are at risk at the moment.” But Brackenridge said that with banking sentiment such a volatile and sensitive matter, he was keeping an eye open for signs that systemic risk could be infiltrating the banking environment.
Absa owns 26% of Commerce Bank of Zimbabwe (CBZ) and Absa director Louis von Zeuner said he too had concerns. “Although we are perfectly comfortable with CBZ at the moment, we are certainly concerned about the banking environment. But what is making this worse is that rumours and speculation are adding more risk to an already tense situation.” Von Zeuner said CBZ had not yet experienced any interbank loan defaults, “although we are monitoring this situation extremely closely”. Colin Drew, GM of Nedbank Africa, which owns 28% of the Zimbabwe-based Merchant Bank of Central Africa (MBCA), said the country was in the grip of a banking crisis. Drew said that although MBCA had been exposed to most of the other banks through interbank loans, “we have managed our exposure carefully and have been positioning our bank for a crisis for some time, given what is happening in other parts of the Zimbabwean economy”. “We don’t anticipate that this crisis will spread to affect us, although we are monitoring the situation closely,” he said.
Drew said part of the problem was that the Zimbabwe Reserve Bank had introduced a real-time settlement system for interbank loans in November that revealed liquidity problems in frailer banks. Whereas in the past there was a delay in the time taken for banks to settle interbank loans, the real-time system exposed any liquidity deficiencies. Standard Bank economist Robert Bunyi said Zimbabwe’s bank crisis had been “a time bomb waiting to explode”. Until December, the Zimbabwe Reserve Bank had kept interest rates at about 150%, yet inflation was running at more than 500% prompting people to borrow relatively cheaply to buy assets to sell at a profit. “But now (Gono) has tightened the screws on lending between the reserve bank and commercial banks, the banks have raised their interest rates on interbank lending and this has filtered through to an increase in the interest rates charged to consumers on their loans,” he said. In November, the nominal interest rate was 150%, but this has increased to 375%- 450% at big banks, and to 600%-700% at small banks.
Source:Business Day (SA)
URL: http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID…br>