Ethiopia: CBE Suspends Current Accounts of All Private Banks

Addisfortune.net

The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia 

(CBE) has suspended the current 

accounts held there by all private 

banks. In an unprecedented move, 

its officials advised private banks 

to 

either withdraw their deposits or transfer them out of CBE’s 

Addis Abeba Branch. In the absence of a central bank 

account for the commercial banks, CBE’s Addis Abeba 

Branch has been serving the industry as a central switch 

system. The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) is in a bidding 

process to acquire a national switch system. A letter of 

termination circulated to all private banks on Tuesday 

morning, September 17, 2013, signed by the branch’s 

manager, Woldemedhin Kidane, did not provide much of an 

explanation for the reason behind this move.