Atlas Mara Bank Zambia Limited (AMBZL), commonly referred to as Atlas Mara Bank Zambia, 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 co ...

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are t ...

. It is licensed by the

Bank of Zambia The Bank of Zambia (BoZ), is the central bank of Zambia. Overview The principal responsibility of the bank is to create and implement monetary policy that will maintain the economic stability of the country. The Bank is active in promoting financ ...

, 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 b ...

and national banking regulator. AMBZL was established on 1 December 2016, when BancABC Zambia Limited merged with Finance Bank Zambia Limited.

Location

The headquarters of the bank and its main branch, are located in ''Atlas Mara House'', at the corner of Church Road and Nasser Road, in the city of Lusaka, the capital and largest city of Zambia. The coordinates of the bank's headquarters are: 15°25'08.0"S, 28°18'02.0"E (

Latitude In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pol ...

:-15.418889;

Longitude Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east– west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek lette ...

:28.300556).

Overview

Atlas Mara Bank is a large retail bank serving individuals,

small and medium sized enterprises 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 Bank ...

, large corporations and government departments across

. , the bank controlled US$616 million in assets. At that time its branch network totaled 65 full branches, 24 agencies and 177

automated teller machine An automated teller machine (ATM) or cash machine (in British English) is an electronic telecommunications device that enables customers of financial institutions to perform financial transactions, such as cash withdrawals, deposits, fun ...

s. Then, it was the fifth largest bank in Zambia by asset value.

History

BancABC Zambia Limited was established in the early 2000s, as part of the

BancABC Access Bank Botswana, is a commercial bank formerly known as BancABC Botswana, that is headquartered in Gaborone, Botswana. In October 2021, Access Bank Group concluded the acquisition of 78.15 percent shareholding in the stock of the erstwhil ...

conglomerate. In August 2015, Atlas Mara acquired 100 percent shareholding in BancABC. Finance Bank Zambia Limited was established in 1986, having acquired a banking license from the

. Its registered offices and main branch were located in

Ndola Ndola is the third largest city in Zambia and third in terms of size and population, with a population of 475,194 (''2010 census provisional''), after the capital, Lusaka, and Kitwe, and the second largest in terms of infrastructure development aft ...

. In November 2015 Atlas Mara, the parent of ABCBanc Zambia Limited, declared their intentions to acquire 100 percent shareholding in Finance Bank Zambia via stock and cash. The acquisition required regulatory approval. On 1 July 2016, Atlas Mara completed the acquisition of FBZ Limited, for US$61 million in cash, 3.3 million shares of Atlas Mara stock and a deferred contingent consideration of up to 1.3 million shares. Atlas Mara announced that they planned to

merge Merge, merging, or merger may refer to: Concepts * Merge (traffic), the reduction of the number of lanes on a road * Merge (linguistics), a basic syntactic operation in generative syntax in the Minimalist Program * Merger (politics), the comb ...

both FBZ Limited, which they had just acquired, with BancABC Zambia, which they already owned. The merger of the two banks was effected on 1 December 2016, by the integration of their banking platforms into one

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also i ...

. The new entity adopted its current name, to reflect the new ownership.

Ownership

, the stock of the bank was 100 percent owned by Atlas Mara, a financial services conglomerate, with headquarters in

Tortola Tortola () is the largest and most populated island of the British Virgin Islands, a group of islands that form part of the archipelago of the Virgin Islands. It has a surface area of with a total population of 23,908, with 9,400 residents in ...

British Virgin Islands ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = Territorial song , song = " Oh, Beautiful Virgin Islands" , image_map = File:British Virgin Islands on the globe (Americas centered).svg , map_caption = , mapsize = 290px , image_map2 = Bri ...

, and whose shares are traded on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St P ...

Branch Network

, Atlas Mara Bank Zambia, maintained a main office and a network of 65 stand-alone branches and 24 agencies, in all major metropolitan areas of Zambia.

References

External links

Website of Atlas Mara Bank Zambia LimitedWebsite of the Bank of ZambiaBob Diamond's Misadventures in Africa
{{Coord, 15, 25, 08, S, 28, 18, 02, E, display=title Banks of Zambia Companies based in Lusaka Banks established in 2016 2016 establishments in Zambia