Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
The Bank of Zambia (BoZ) has been cautioned against succumbing to any pressure to rescind its directive to prohibit financial service providers from imposing unwarranted charges.
Former Finance Minister Ng’andu Magande is advising the BoZ to wait until banks begin to show their profit and loss accounts at the end of the year.
Mr. Magande says if there will be any bank that will record any losses by the end of this year, such a bank should consider some other restructuring.
In an interview by telephone with QTV News Mr. Magande explains that this is because there could something that such a loss making bank may not be doing properly.
Mr. Magande, who was Finance Minister under the Levy Patrick Mwanawasa MMD government, says the argument about bank losses are theories that have been heard before.
He states that it is common knowledge that Zambia has not in the recent past recorded any bank that has collapsed owing to the decisions made by the Central Bank.
Mr. Magande says he does not therefore know why banks want to assume that they will run into problems following the Central Bank’s decision to prohibit imposition of unwarranted bank charges.
He notes that in his view it actually confuses customers when there are over 20 bank charges and they do not even know why such charges are being imposed on them.