THE Reserve Bank yesterday suspended the use of Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system as a form of customer payment until further notice.

Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono said the design of the RTGS system was such that payments and inter-account transfers must reflect in the recipients account a few minutes after effecting the payment, but was being abused

"The use of the RTGS system for customer payments is hereby suspended until further notice," said Gono in a statement.

"For the avoidance of doubt there will be no processing of the RTGS payments through the system with effect from Friday October 3," he said.

Gono said the system had become an active vehicle for illicit foreign exchange parallel market dealings, as well as a convenient excuse by sellers of goods to overprice their commodities.

"The victims have largely remained the defenseless members of the public who are having to watch in despair as their hard earned incomes are grabbed away from them through the extractive pricing structure.

"Cognisant to the need to provide liquidity to facilitate settlement of clearing house obligations by financial institutions, all payments from the Reserve Bank to financial institutions and vice versa will continue to be credited to their accounts electronically. These include funding by banks for cash withdrawals," said Gono.