Africa-Press – Lesotho. The Central Bank of Lesotho (CBL) has issued directives to the local commercial banks to revise their banking charges. This the acting Governor, Lehlomela Mohapi said on Wednesday
this week. Mohapi said the directives are intended to achieve: inclusivity, enhanced intermediation and competitive pricing of banking products and services.
Financial inclusion, he said is a national objective. Taking stock of enhanced intermediation he said “our intermediation metrics fall way short of our CMA [Cash Management Account] counterparts and there are no
convincing reasons why that is the case”. He was flanked by Standard Lesotho Bank Chief Executive Officer Anton Nicholson, Nedbank Managing Director Nkau Matete, FNB
Lesotho Chief Executive Officer Delekazi Mokebe and Lesotho Post Bank Managing Director Molefi Leqhaoe. Mohapi said the directives have been informed by “an
in-depth research work and benchmarking exercise” by the CBL. He further said these decision by the regulator were arrived at following extensive discussions with the commercial banks.
These orders cover many banking products and services. The directives will address and accommodate different clientele needs. They range from directive low-income savings, directive
on cash deposits fees and charges, directive on real time gross settlement (RTGS) fees and charges, directive on penalty fees, directive on point of sale
devices, directive on electronic banking also known as internet banking and printed statements, directive on prime lending rate, directive on deposit rate,
directive on credit, directive on disclosure in respect of fees and charges and directive on effective date. He said there will be a universal low-income saving,
Bothebelele Account which will cater for members of public with monthly earnings of M3 000.00 or less. There will be no charges for opening this account, for first time card issuance, no management fees, also auto teller
machine (ATM) charges for deposits into this account will be waived, one withdrawal including cardless withdrawal will be for free and it will enjoy other free services.
“There shall be no charges or fees for cash on personal accounts on ATMs.
The free charges or fees shall be applicable to an amount up to a maximum of M3 000.00 per month. “There shall be one free deposit for all cash deposits
valued at an amount equivalent to M20 000.00 per month into accounts of SMME [Small and Micro-Medium Enterprise] businesses with an annual account transaction turnover of at most M240 000.00.
“The banks shall not charge for self-service domestic
RTGS transactions, an amount more than flat rate of M20 000.00 regardless of the amount being processed,” Mohapi said. The banks have also been directed not to charge an
amount exceeding M40.00 for dishonoured debit order transactions. Also, the banks have been ordered to charge a flat rate of M4.00 for local point of sale
(POS) transactions irrespective of amount transacted. The regulator has also placed caps on early redemption fees on investment accounts. They will also scrap charges for monthly subscriptions
of online banking and mobile banking applications also known as banking Apps, online statements, an electronic account confirmation and email statements.
For investment less than M500.00, the maximum fee will be M50.00, between M500.00 and M999.99 the fee will not exceed M100.00, for M1 000 up to M9 999.99 the fee will not exceed M250.00, for
investment between M10 000.00 and M100 000.00 charges will be capped at M750.00 and for investments over M100 000.00 charges will not exceed M1 000.00.
The revised pricing charges will come into effect on April 1. “Unless stated otherwise …, all provisions of this Directive shall be effective and in operation from April 01, 2022.
It shall subsist for a period of 24 months to March 31, 2024 at which it may be revised or upheld,” he said. CBL is also the Commissioner of Financial Institutions. Section 71 of the Financial Institutions Act, 2012 clothes it with power to exercises regulatory-ship over financial institutions.
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