Absa Bank

Absa Group Limited, together with its subsidiaries, provides various financial products and services in South Africa and internationally. The company operates through Retail and Business Banking; Corporate and Investment Banking; and Head Office, Treasury and Other Operations. 

The company offers retail and business banking products and services to individual, enterprise, and commercial customers, including residential property-related finance solutions; vehicle and asset finance products and services; credit cards; personal loans; relationship banking; short-term insurance products; transactional banking, savings, and investment products and services; and rewards program and services. 

It also provides commercial property finance and term loans. In addition, the company offers investment banking services; private equity and infrastructure investments; corporate banking products and services; and wealth management services. Further, it provides life insurance products covering death, disability and retrenchment, funeral, and life-wrapped investment products; investments, such as asset management, multi-management, unit trusts, and investment products; treasury services; and wealth and financial advisory services. 

Additionally, the company offers market services; trade and working capital solutions; and cash management, payment, and liquidity products and solutions. It also offers broker-dealer trading in debt and equity securities; solicitation, syndication, selling and arranging of equity and debt products, as well as financial, leasing, and management services. The company was formerly known as Barclays Africa Group Limited and changed its name to Absa Group Limited in May 2018. Absa Group Limited was incorporated in 1986 and is based in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Barclays Africa Limited

Absa was founded in 1991 through the merger of financial service providers United Bank, and the Allied Bank (Souths of the Sage Group. The following year, Absa acquired the entire shareholding of the Bankorp Group which included Trustbank, Senbank and Bankfin. In the early years of this union, each bank operated under its own name. In 1998, they were fused into one single brand. A year later, Absa adopted a new corporate identity and the name was changed to Absa Group Limited. In May 2005, Barclays Bank of the United Kingdom purchased a 56.4% stake in Absa. In early 2007, the Barclays Bank acquisition of Absa was criticized by the governor of the South African Reserve Bank, Tito Mboweni who said he "had yet to see the benefits of Barclays' management of Absa".

Bank charges

Finweek Bank Charges Reports from 2008 through 2010 found Absa Group Limited to be the most expensive bank in South Africa. Pay-as-you-transact fees increased by 82% from 2005 to 2010. 2012, Finweek Bank Charges Report ranked Absa's Gold Value Bundle as the cheapest package option amongst the four banks that were compared. The report has also shown Absa's PAYT pricing structure to have reduced by 25% by 2013, leaving it third cheapest in the overall ranking at that time. 

In 2013, the group acquired the entire issued share capital of Barclays Africa Limited and issued 129,540,636 Consideration Shares to Barclays Africa Group Holdings Limited thus increasing the shareholding of Barclays plc to 62.3%. The Consideration Shares were listed on the JSE from the commencement of trading on 31 July 2013. The name change from “ABSA Group Limited” to “Barclays Africa Group Limited” was completed in August 2013. 

In 2017, the South African Public Protector, Busisiwe Mkhwebane, found that the bailout of R1.125 billion that Absa's predecessor Bankorp Group had received between 1985 and 1992 from the Reserve Bank was illegal, and recommended that Absa be forced to pay back R2.25 billion, the current equivalent of the amount. The report was set aside by the Pretoria High Court, finding that "The public protector did not conduct herself in a manner which would be expected from a person occupying the office of the public protector." The court assessed some costs of the case personally against Mkhwebane due to her conduct, an order upheld by the Constitutional Court of South Africa in July 2019.

Absa Group Limited

Barclays Bank Plc in 2018 owned 14.9 percent of Absa Group Limited. In March 2018, Barclays Africa announced the group's name would revert to Absa Group Limited, effective 30 May 2018. The company underwent a rebranding in 2018, inclusive of a new logo and slogans. Absa opened an international office in London in September 2018, and then in 2019, opened another international office in New York City. As of October 2019, according to the Club of Mozambique, Absa Group Limited had total assets in excess of US$91 billion. ABGL 2020 was the majority shareholder of 11 banks located in Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. In March 2022, Sello Moloko was appointed Group Chairman and Arrie Rautenbach was appointed CEO and its fourth CEO in three years. 

The company had been without a CEO for eleven months after the abrupt resignation of Daniel Mminele. In August 2022, Barclays Plc sold its remaining stake in Absa, which it had acquired in 2005, selling 7.4 percent of Absa's issued capital for $620 million.

“To be the proud, passionate champion of our customers’ success and make a positive difference in their financial lives.”

“To be Africa’s bank of choice, driving customer centricity and enabling economic growth.”