Absa Bank Seychelles Limited, formerly known as Barclays Bank Seychelles Limited, is a

commercial bank A commercial bank is a financial institution which accepts deposits from the public and gives loans for the purposes of consumption and investment to make profit. It can also refer to a bank, or a division of a large bank, which deals with cor ...

Seychelles Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (french: link=no, République des Seychelles; Creole: ''La Repiblik Sesel''), is an archipelagic state consisting of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, V ...

. It is licensed by the

Central Bank of Seychelles The Central Bank of Seychelles (french: Banque centrale des Seychelles, Seychellois Creole: ''Labank santral Sesel''), is the central bank of Seychelles. It was officially established on 1 January 1983, with the dissolution of its precursor, the ...

, the

central bank A central bank, reserve bank, or monetary authority is an institution that manages the currency and monetary policy of a country or monetary union, and oversees their commercial banking system. In contrast to a commercial bank, a central ba ...

and national banking regulator.

Location

The bank's headquarters is located at Capital City Building, Independence Avenue,

Victoria, Seychelles Victoria () is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Seychelles, situated on the north-eastern side of Mahé island, the archipelago's main island. The city was first established as the seat of the British colonial government. In 2010 ...

. The geographic coordinates of the bank's headquarters are:(Latitude:-4.622926386062543; Longitude:55.45356283347604).

Overview

The bank is involved in meeting the banking needs of individuals,

small and medium-sized businesses Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) or small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are businesses whose personnel and revenue numbers fall below certain limits. The abbreviation "SME" is used by international organizations such as the World Ba ...

(SMEs), and large corporations. It is one of the nine commercial banks licensed in the country. Absa Bank Seychelles Limited is a subsidiary of

Absa Group Limited Absa Group Limited (ABGL; formerly Barclays Africa Group Limited), and originally Amalgamated Banks of South Africa, is a South African-based financial services group, offering personal and business banking, credit cards, corporate and invest ...

, the

Pan African Pan-Africanism is a worldwide movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all Indigenous and diaspora peoples of African ancestry. Based on a common goal dating back to the Atlantic slave trade, the movement exte ...

financial services conglomerate headquartered in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

, with subsidiaries in 12 African countries, whose total assets exceeded US$87 billion as at 30 June 2017.

History

The bank opened in the country 1959, as a branch of

Barclays Barclays () is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services. Barclays traces ...

of the United Kingdom. The bank operated in that capacity until 2000, when Barclays Bank Seychelles Limited was incorporated. In 2006, the bank served approximately 35,000 customers, through 5 branches, 7 ATMs and 130 members of staff. In 2013, the bank became a member of

Barclays Africa Group Absa Group Limited (ABGL; formerly Barclays Africa Group Limited), and originally Amalgamated Banks of South Africa, is a South African-based financial services group, offering personal and business banking, credit cards, corporate and invest ...

, in which Barclays Plc had a 62.3 percent majority shareholding.

Name change

Beginning in October 2019, Barclays Bank Seychelles Limited began re-branding to Absa Bank Seychelles Limited. The process concluded on 10 February 2020, when the legal and business names of the bank changed to Absa Bank Seychelles Limited.

Governance

The bank is governed by a

board of directors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

. The chairman of the board is Jean Weeling Lee, one of the non-executive directors. The managing director and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

is Johan Van Schalkwyk.

References

External links

Official Website
{{coord, 04, 37, 24, S, 55, 27, 08, E, display=title Banks of Seychelles Absa Group Limited Victoria, Seychelles Banks established in 1959 1959 establishments in Seychelles 1959 establishments in the British Empire