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THE Deposit Protection Corporation says funds in mobile money transactions are covered under the country’s regulations allaying fears on the market.

In a question and answer session at a DPC workshop last week, chief executive, Mr John Chikura, said funds in mobile wallets such as EcoCash, Telecash and OneWallet were insured.

“That money is covered. Unlike in Kenya where MPesa started on their own outside the arrangement of their reserve bank, here, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe said no one could operate outside the bank. So all of them they have accounts in the bank, they have trust accounts where all the money goes and that trust account is with the bank,” he said.

However, indications are that the operators have trust accounts, whose trustees they are reluctant to reveal. Mr Chikura said failure to disclose trustees would pose challenges in compensating account holders in the event of insolvency.

“We have been covering trust accounts before mobile money. The requirement is that the provider must tell us, give us a list of those people who are in it and that’s where the challenge is. But if you cannot tell us or give us a list of who is in it, we will treat you as one account and will give you $1 000,” said Mr Chikura.

The DPC provides compensation to depositors in the event of bank insolvency. Eligible deposits are protected up to a maximum of $1 000 per depositor per bank (effective June 1, 2016) and up to a maximum of $250 per deposit taking micro-finance banks, which is paid immediately when a member institution has been closed.

According to the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz) first quarter report, there are 3 251 million mobile money subscribers who were active in the first quarter of 2017.

The regulatory body describes an active mobile money subscriber as a customer account that has used mobile money services to make transactions that involve the movement of value such as cash-in, cash-out, bill payments and airtime top-ups at least once in the last 90 days. Cross network transfers (by origination) in the quarter totalled $634 143, which was 65 percent lower than the previous quarter’s $1, 86 million due to cash challenges. — BH24