Zimbabwe’s Central Bank Bans Financial Institutions From All Crypto Dealings

On the 12th may, local media outlet Newsday reports that Zimbabwe’s national bank has recently prohibited domestic financial institutions from managing cryptocurrencies.

As indicated by the report, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s (RBZ) chief and registrar of banking institution Norman Mataruka issued a circular Friday requesting every single financial establishment to stop servicing cryptocurrency trades within 60 days and start to liquidate existing crypto-related records.

Financial institutions have been requested to “ensure that they do not use, trade, hold and/or transact in any way in virtual currencies,” a move which applies to the two businesses and people.

Clarifying the choice, Mataruka explained that the interconnectedness of cryptocurrency and the traditional fiat financial system, expressing that the RBZ has an “obligation to safeguard the integrity of payment systems”, which the national bank isn’t prepared to accommodate crypto.

John Mangudya, the RBZ’s governor cautioned the general public in a different statement that people who trade cryptocurrency in the nation do as this at their own risk.

“Any person who buys sells, or otherwise transacts in cryptocurrencies, whether online or otherwise, does so at their own risk and will have no recourse to the Reserve Bank or to any regulatory authority in the country.”

Cointelegraph claimed that the RBZ considered the utilization of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) as payment illegal in November last year until financial authorities build up a regulatory structure for the cryptocurrency.

Toward the beginning of April, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) reported a similar boycott, restricting all entities under its locale from dealing with crypto-related organizations or people.

RBZ’s action also follows a recent warning against cryptocurrencies from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), which issued a circular a month ago on the dangers related with crypto trading, for example, extortion, hacking, and loss of data.