BY FIDELITY MHLANGA LONDON Stock Exchange-listed financial services outfit, Standard Chartered Bank is exiting the Zimbabwean market to cut losses after 130 years of operating in the country.
Standard Chartered, whose pay-line “Here for Good”, becomes the second big bank to leave the southern African country in five years, after rival, Barclays, sold its domestic assets in 2017.
Barclays assets have been taken over by Malawi-based FMB Capital, and it has rebranded to First Capital Bank.
“Subject to regulatory approval, the group now intends to exit onshore operations in seven markets in AME and in a further two markets focus solely on its corporate, commercial and institutional banking (‘CCIB’) business,” the bank said in a statement on its website.
“The seven markets where there will be a full exit of operations are Angola, Cameroon, The Gambia, Jordan, Lebanon, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe. In Tanzania and Cote d’Ivoire, the Consumer, Private and Business Banking businesses will be exited and the focus will turn solely to CCIB.”
The group will exit Zimbabwe, Angola, Cameroon, Gambia, Jordan, Lebanon and Sierra Leone.
Standard Chartered added that it had invested heavily in recent years in the AME region, including fundamentally transforming its digital capabilities in its African markets.
Standard Chartered Zimbabwe in its present form arose from a merger of Standard Bank and Chartered Bank in 1969. In 1983, the bank was locally incorporated. Prior to that, Standard Chartered Bank Zimbabwe Limited operated as a branch.
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