Central Bank may place limit on funds withdrawn over the counter —Sonny Zulu

A threshold on the amount withdrawn from over the counter is likely to be introduced as the financial market has recently seen customers withdrawing huge sums of money.

Withdrawing huge amount of money is taking away liquidity from the financial market and this puts pressure on the economy.

Standard Chartered Bank Zambia Chief Executive Officer, Chief Executive Officer Sonny Zulu, said most people had recently been withdrawing large amounts of money from the counter.

Zulu stressed that it would therefore not be surprising to see the Bank of Zambia (BoZ) Bank limiting the money withdrawn.

He said this recently in Lusaka at the Chief Executive Officer press briefing.

Read more: Commercial banks’ strategy limiting credit access to low income earners —Bank of Zambia

“This issue of keeping money in the homes is something that…I am very happy that the Central bank is dealing with it as well, I will not be surprised if not too long from now , we start seeing thresholds on how much you can be able to withdraw from the counter.

“Without that threshold, we see people coming in and withdrawing huge amounts of cash and when you do that that is taking liquidity away from the market,” he said.

Zulu emphasised the need for funds to remain in the financial system.

“We need to see that liquidity remaining in the financial system. So those kind of interventions we should be able to see but I would say a step has been taken. We have not yet seen that but dictionary, we should be able to see that,” he said.

Meanwhile, Zulu said financial service providers would have to embark on initiatives which would put money in the banking system by mobilising more deposits.

He stated that these providers would need more funds to lend out to the private sector following the tightening of liquidity on the market.

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