Zimbabwe’s banking sector has 6.7 million customers, US$8 billion in assets and US$4.75 billion in deposits, according to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s latest banking sector risk assessment.
The report offers a snapshot of the size and structure of the country’s banking industry, and assesses how prepared banks are to deal with risks such as illicit finance and money laundering.
Here are five key facts from the report.
Less than 1% of bank customers hold 20% of transactions
The report classifies 52,639 customers, or 0.78% of the sector’s customers, as high-risk. Despite representing less than 1% of customers, this high-risk group accounts for an average of 20.32% of banking transactions. Of these transactions, 9.22%, or 6,944, are associated with politically exposed persons (PEPs), people in prominent public positions who may face heightened exposure to corruption risks.
Being classified as high-risk does not mean a customer has committed a crime, but means banks should apply closer checks to understand their transactions.
Five major banks hold nearly two-thirds of the sector
Big banks hold the most money. Five systemically important banks hold 64% of assets, 67% of loans and 67% of deposits. But they serve fewer customers (3.06 million) than the other 11 banks combined (3.67 million). The big banks hold the corporate money, while smaller ones serve retail customers.
Local hands: Zimbabwe has 17 banking institutions
Zimbabwe has 14 commercial banks, two building societies and one savings bank. Eleven institutions are locally owned and six are foreign-owned.
More than 94% of transactions happen online
Only 5.66% of banking now takes place inside a banking hall. Non-face-to-face transactions account for 94.34% of banking transactions. These include activity conducted through digital and remote channels. RBZ says this means banks need better monitoring systems to keep up.
Eight banks rely on manual transaction monitoring
Eight had adequate transaction monitoring procedures. Worringly, half of the banks rely on manual monitoring systems to watch risks. Between 2023 and 2025, banks submitted 6,302 suspicious transaction reports to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), the body that receives and analyses reports of potentially illicit financial activity. Of these, 6,296 related to money laundering, six to terrorist financing and none to proliferation financing.
