Zimbabwean bank fined for photos of bond notes
A ZIMBABWEAN bank has been slapped with a $500 000 (R7 million) fine for contravening a section of the banking act when it took images of the controversial new bond notes in its possession and distributed these via social media.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe said in a statement that the People’s Own Savings Bank (POSB) had, on Sunday, violated provisions of the banking act, after the bank “unlawfully and without permission” took images of the bond notes in its vaults and distributed and publicised the images via social media.
POSB is a wholly-owned government bank.
“The wrongful and deplorable conduct was also in defiance of advice and warning against such abuse of bond notes made public by the Reserve Bank through a press statement issued on November 26, 2016. The press statement was preceded by a meeting between the (Reserve Bank) governor and the chief executives of banks held on November 25, 2016, at which meeting it was emphasised that abuse of bond notes and any information relating thereto were not to be tolerated,” central bank governor John Mangudya said.
“POSB has thus abused and breached the confidentiality and secrecy it was enjoined to maintain in respect of the information and material (bond notes) provided to it by the Reserve Bank in the performance of its functions.”
He said the bank had committed a “serious offence”, which hurt the integrity and reputation of the central bank, and “caused unnecessary anxiety and discomfort in the market”.
“The Reserve Bank advises the public that as a consequence of the said transgressions, it has imposed an administrative fine of $500 000 on POSB,” he said. “The employees of POSB, who took, publicised and distributed the images on social media, have been dismissed.”
The bond notes rolled out onto the market on Monday, but images of the “surrogate currency” had already started circulating on social media on Sunday, a day before the notes were officially introduced.