Bramer Banking Corporation, commonly known as Bramer Bank, is a

financial institution Financial institutions, sometimes called banking institutions, are business entities that provide services as intermediaries for different types of financial monetary transactions. Broadly speaking, there are three major types of financial insti ...

based in

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...

with its head office is situated at

Port Louis Port Louis (french: Port-Louis; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Polwi or , ) is the capital city of Mauritius. It is mainly located in the Port Louis District, with a small western part in the Black River District. Port Louis is the country's ec ...

and currently under statutory management. It was one of the commercial banks licensed by the

Bank of Mauritius The Bank of Mauritius (french: Banque de Maurice) is the central bank of the Republic of Mauritius. It was established in September 1967 as the central bank of Mauritius. It was modelled on the Bank of England and was, in effect, set up with th ...

, the country's

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 the nation's banking regulator.

Overview

Bramer Bank was part of the British American Investment Group, formerly one of the largest conglomerates in Mauritius with investments in banking, insurance, asset and wealth management, trade & commerce and services in

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...

East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa: Due to the historical ...

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

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 ...

and UK.

History

Founding

Bramer Banking Corporation Limited was formed on February 29, 1988 as South East Asian Bank Limited (SEAB) as a subsidiary of Bumiputra Commerce Bank (now

CIMB bank CIMB Group Holdings Berhad () is a Malaysian universal bank headquartered in Kuala Lumpur and operating in high growth economies in ASEAN. CIMB Group is an indigenous ASEAN investment bank. CIMB has a wide retail branch network with 1,080 bran ...

) of

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

. In March 1990, SEAB took over the banking business of

Habib Bank AG Zurich Habib Bank AG Zurich is a Swiss multinational commercial bank which is based in Zurich, Switzerland. It has its operations in Hong Kong, Kenya, Pakistan, South Africa the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. History Habib Bank AG Zuric ...

in Mauritius. In January 2003, CIMB bank increased its stake in SEAB to 60% subsidiary of CIMB.

Growth Years

In 2008, British American Investment Group acquired full control of South East Asian Bank and subsequently rebranded it to Bramer Banking Corporation. On May 9, 2012 Bramer Banking Corporation's stock began trading on the

Stock Exchange of Mauritius The Stock Exchange of Mauritius (SEM) (french: Bourse de Maurice); is an organization responsible for the operation of Economy of Mauritius, Mauritius's primary stock exchange located at Port Louis. The SEM operates two markets: the Official Marke ...

(SEM) after the

amalgamation Amalgamation is the process of combining or uniting multiple entities into one form. Amalgamation, amalgam, and other derivatives may refer to: Mathematics and science * Amalgam (chemistry), the combination of mercury with another metal **Pan am ...

of its business with The Mauritius Leasing Company (“MLC”) that was listed on the SEM and Bramer Holding Company. The amalgamation made Bramer Banking Corporation the third largest lender in Mauritius by market capitalisation and it remained a subsidiary of the British American Investment Group.

Liquidity Crisis and Closure

On April 2, 2015 Bramer Banking Corporation's banking license was revoked by the

to avoid systemic risks to the domestic financial system. Indeed, Bramer Bank had been experiencing large withdrawals of deposits placing it in a precarious liquidity situation in an alleged

Ponzi scheme A Ponzi scheme (, ) is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from more recent investors. Named after Italian businessman Charles Ponzi, the scheme leads victims to believe that profits are comin ...

. A situation that was further worsened by Bramer Bank’s difficulty to raise funds on the interbank market. As a result, it was relying on overnight facilities from the Bank of Mauritius from March 6, 2015 in order to meet daily cash flow requirements. This liquidity crisis also affected Bramer Banking Corporation's sister compan
BAI Co
Both firm's stock were suspended from trading on the same day. The Bank of Mauritius appointed Messrs. Mushtaq Oosman and Andre Bonieux of

PricewaterhouseCoopers PricewaterhouseCoopers is an international professional services brand of firms, operating as partnerships under the PwC brand. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounting ...

as the receivers pursuant to section 75 of the Banking Act 2004. A new newly formed state owned bank known as the National Commercial Bank was incorporated and took over all the assets and liabilities of Bramer Banking Corporation. The

State Bank of Mauritius State Bank of Mauritius (SBM), is a bank in Mauritius that the Bank of Mauritius, the national banking regulator, has licensed as a commercial bank. SBM is the second-largest bank in Mauritius with a market share of about 25% of domestic banking ...

provided limited assistance to the new bank.

Ownership

As of December 31, 2013, the shareholding of Bramer Banking Corporation was as follows:

References

{{Reflist, 30em

External links

Bramer Corporation Limited

British American Investment Co. (Mtius) Ltd

Website of Bank of Mauritius
Banks of Mauritius Companies listed on the Stock Exchange of Mauritius Companies based in Port Louis Banks established in 1988 1988 establishments in Mauritius Bank failures Banks disestablished in 2015 2015 disestablishments in Mauritius