Atlas Mara Bank Zambia Limited (AMBZL), commonly referred to as ''Atlas Mara Zambia'', is a

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

Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...

. Established on December 1, 2016 from the merger of BancABC Zambia Ltd. with Finance Bank Zambia Ltd., 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, national bank, or monetary authority is an institution that manages the monetary policy of a country or monetary union. In contrast to a commercial bank, a central bank possesses a monopoly on increasing the mo ...

and national banking regulator. On January 8, 2024,

Access Bank Group Access Bank Group is a financial services conglomerate, headquartered in Nigeria, with subsidiaries in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, The Gambia, Guinea, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Malta, ...

announced that it had completed the purchase of Atlas Mara Zambia and that it would merge its operations with the already established Access Bank Zambia.

Location

The

headquarters Headquarters (often referred to as HQ) notes the location where most or all of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. The term is used in a wide variety of situations, including private sector corporations, non-profits, mil ...

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 Lusaka ( ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zambia. It is one of the fastest-developing cities in southern Africa. Lusaka is in the southern part of the central plateau at an elevation of about . , the city's population was abo ...

, the

capital Capital and its variations may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** Capital region, a metropolitan region containing the capital ** List of national capitals * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Econom ...

and largest city of Zambia. The

coordinates In geometry, a coordinate system is a system that uses one or more numbers, or coordinates, to uniquely determine and standardize the Position (geometry), position of the Point (geometry), points or other geometric elements on a manifold such as ...

of the bank's headquarters are: 15°25'08.0"S, 28°18'02.0"E (

Latitude In geography, latitude is a geographic coordinate system, geographic 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 t ...

:-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 lett ...

:28.300556).

Overview

Atlas Mara Bank is a large

retail bank Retail banking, also known as consumer banking or personal banking, is the provision of services by a bank to the general public, rather than to companies, corporations or other banks, which are often described as wholesale banking (corporate ba ...

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 many national agencies and international organizat ...

, 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) is an electronic telecommunications device that enables customers of financial institutions to perform financial transactions, such as cash withdrawals, deposits, funds transfers, balance inquiries or account ...

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 in terms of size and population, with a population of 627,503 (''2022 census''), after the capital, Lusaka, and Kitwe, and the second largest in terms of infrastructure development after Lusaka. It is the I ...

. 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 Stocks (also capital stock, or sometimes interchangeably, shares) consist of all the Share (finance), shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided. A single share of the stock means fractional ownership of the corporatio ...

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 Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of a company, business organization, or one of their operating units is transferred to or consolidated with another entity. They may happen through direct absorpt ...

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 and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

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

Ownership

, the

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 The British Virgin Islands (BVI), officially the Virgin Islands, are a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean, to the east of Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands, US Virgin Islands and north-west ...

, and whose shares are traded on the

London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...

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 Metropolitan may refer to: Areas and governance (secular and ecclesiastical) * Metropolitan archdiocese, the jurisdiction of a metropolitan archbishop ** Metropolitan bishop or archbishop, leader of an ecclesiastical "mother see" * Metropolitan ar ...

areas of Zambia.

References

External links

Website of Atlas Mara Bank Zambia LimitedWebsite of the Bank of Zambia

Bob 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 2024 mergers and acquisitions

Location

Overview

History

Ownership

Branch Network

See also

References

External links