By Chantelle Muzanenhamo
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) is set to conduct raids on businesses and individuals who are hoarding foreign currency in cash deposit boxes located in banks, homes, and commercial premises.
This operation comes in response to growing concerns about liquidity shortages in the economy.
Oliver Chiperesa, director-general of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), confirmed the upcoming initiative, which aligns with comments made by RBZ Governor John Mushayavanhu in the 2025 Monetary Policy Statement.
Chiperesa highlighted that larger amounts of money, particularly from manufacturers and informal retailers, are being stored in cash deposit boxes instead of being circulated in the economy.
“In his 2025 Monetary Policy Statement, the RBZ Governor noted that businesses and individuals, especially manufacturers and informal retailers, are hoarding millions of dollars in cash deposit boxes. This practice is depriving the economy of much-needed liquidity,” Chiperesa stated.
The RBZ’s actions are driven by concerns that such hoarding violates the Anti-Money Laundering Act, which mandates businesses to bank their earnings. To ensure the legality of the raids, authorities are currently drafting regulations that will guide the operation.
“We are working on regulations to ensure that we conduct this blitz within the confines of the law. While cash deposit boxes are typically used for important documents, we are seeing a troubling trend of them being used to store substantial sums of money outside the banking system, which is illegal,” Chiperesa noted.
The primary goal of the raids is to promote the use of formal banking channels, enhancing financial transparency, and ensuring compliance with regulations against money laundering and terrorism financing.
“We want to encourage growth and ensure that all transactions are accounted for in line with anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism regulations. Our removal from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list was due to the clean flow of money in our economy, and we aim to maintain this achievement to support economic growth by attracting Foreign Direct Investment,” Mr. Chiperesa concluded.
The move by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to raid cash deposit boxes comes at a time when inflation has severely eroded the public’s trust in banks, leading many to hoard their money instead.