In July 2019, queues formed at Zimbabwean banks as customers sought to exchange foreign currency for local money. Business Daily reported that the official interbank rate had moved above the parallel-market rate, sending people from bank to bank in search of both a better price and a shorter line. NMB and Steward Bank were among the institutions with the longest queues.
Christopher Masamba joined one line at 8 a.m.; at noon, he was still far from being served. The report put the bank rate at roughly eight RTGS dollars to one US dollar, compared with about seven on the parallel market. In a setting where speed might normally favour informal exchange, the price difference outweighed the delay and drew customers back to bank counters. The queue recorded not simply a shortage of cash, but a temporary reversal in the relationship between Zimbabwe's two currency markets.