Mozambique: Standard Bank agrees with regulator’s finding

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Mozambique: Standard Bank agrees with regulator’s finding

3:49 CAT | 27 Jul 2022

File photo: Wikimedia Commons

Standard Bank Mozambique said on Tuesday it does not disagree with the local financial regulator on the extension of the sanction imposed on the bank but noted that “there are reforms that go beyond the bank and that could better serve customers.

Speaking to Lusa following the Bank of Mozambique’s decision to extend the ban on foreign exchange transactions with other banks, the director of the bank’s corporate customer department in the country, João Guirengane, said that the bank was cooperating.

“We agree with the regulator. Some reforms go beyond Standard Bank as a financial institution in our market that we can improve to serve the market and our customers better,” he said, adding, “We are working very closely with the Bank of Mozambique to introduce reforms in the foreign payment processes, reforms on how quickly we share information with the regulator. These are some of the measures we are taking, but it goes far beyond that. What we want is to be a benchmark bank not only in Mozambique but worldwide.

At issue is the extension, announced last week, for another 12 months, of the ban on participating in the interbank foreign exchange market, a year after the Bank of Mozambique suspended the institution in this type of operation for “serious infractions” in the regulator’s term.

“It is a continuation of a previous decision taken by the regulator mid-last year; the regulator carried out additional assessments, and in the talks, they have recognised that there have been improvements from the foreign exchange point of view, but they feel there is room to implement additional changes and due to this perception the regulator had extended a restriction for the bank to operate in the interbank market,” said João Guirengane, noting that the bank continues to sell and buy currency to individual and corporate customers without restrictions.

According to the central bank, “the decision stems from the fact that it found, throughout its monitoring of that financial institution, evidence of serious irregularities that dictated its ban, in effect for the last 12 months, despite some improvements.
Despite remaining suspended from the interbank foreign exchange market, the regulator said that the commercial bank was authorised to carry out currency conversion activities with its public and must use the reference exchange rate published by the Bank of Mozambique.

In an official reaction distributed to the media, Standard Bank reiterated that the decision did not prevent the institution from continuing to work with its clients, adding that it remains in contact with the regulator to resolve the problems.

“Standard Bank continues to work with the Bank of Mozambique to resolve all outstanding issues from the 2021 audit to be readmitted to the interbank foreign exchange market,” the commercial bank said.

The suspension of Standard Bank from the Interbank Foreign Exchange Market was announced on 23 June last year. The following day the central bank announced it was opening three “contravention proceedings” against Standard Bank and two of its employees.

The commercial bank was also forced to pay a fine of 290 million meticals (€4 million) after “serious violations” were found during inspections, most notably fraudulent manipulation of the exchange rate.

Data from Mozambique’s central bank published in April showed Standard Bank as third on the list of the three banks of systemic importance in Mozambique, on a list led by Banco Internacional de Moçambique (Millennium Bim) and in which Banco Comercial e de Investimentos (BCI) is in second place.

Source: Lusa