Standard Bank's suspension of all activities involving the conversion of foreign currency in Mozambique is leaving several clients with foreign currency accounts without access to their salariespeople affected by the measure told Lusa.

"We receive salaries through these accounts and now they are blocked. In our case, most of the workers at our institution, have accounts at Standard Bank and are paid in foreign currency. Now no one is being able to touch the money," said a customer of the bank, who requested anonymity.

At stake is the decision, announced a week ago, of the Bank of Mozambique to suspend Standard Bank from all activities involving the conversion of foreign currency in the foreign exchange market, following "findings identified during the on-site inspection in progress," according to a statement from the regulator, which does not give further details about the causes.

Another customer of the bank affected by the suspension, who also requested anonymity, lamented to Lusa that the problem is aggravated by the lack of information from the bank, saying that he only realized the gravity of the situation after going to the bank two days after the central bank's announcement.

"I went to the bank and they told me that one of the solutions is to open an account in another bank so that the amounts can be transferred. But my money is in that account and I don't have any other bank. I will have to arrange to open one, but in the meantime how am I going to survive?" he questioned.

Lusa contacted Standard Bank, whose board of directors met on Thursday, and promised a statement soon.

Central bank data released in April showed Standard Bank as third in the list of the three systemically important banks in Mozambique, in a list led by Banco Comercial e de Investimentos (BCI), with Banco Internacional de Moçambique (Millennium Bim) in second position.

In the ratio that measures the importance to the sector, labeled with the English acronym D-SIB, BCI tops the list with 278 points, followed by Millennium Bim with 257 and Standard Bank with 159.