BANKERS’ Association of Zimbabwe (BAZ) president George Guvamatanga has revealed that they were reviewing the association’s code of conduct to include responsible finance, lending and consumer rights. Business Reporter
Guvamatanga said the code of conduct was being finalised while Treasury was handling the issue of the Ombudsman to reduce irregularities in the financial services sector.
“The code we have speaks more on how banks interact with each other and it is outdated. The new code will speak on how to deal with customers and how we treat customers fairly. We should be through with the code by the first quarter of this year,” he said.
The code that is being used by BAZ came into effect in 2006 to give guidance to commercial and merchant banks operating in the country.
The old code adopted some of its features from South Africa and the United States.
The changes were prompted by complaints from depositors who were failing to access their money on time while some real time gross settlement transactions were not processed timeously.
Guvamatanga said most banks were saddled with non-performing loans, a development which might affect their ability to offer new loans.
