Inside the protracted divorce between Absa and Barclays
After a tough battle, mediated by ace negotiator Maria Ramos, the SA bank has passed the halfway mark in the separation process, chair Wendy Lucas-Bull says
Absa first got wind of its British parent company Barclays’s plan to sell it off in an article in London’s Financial Times (FT) in 2016. Just three months before the news piece was published, the UK banking group had been pressuring Absa to finalise the rebranding of its banks in the rest of Africa under the Barclays brand. The official announcement from Barclays soon followed and set the stage for a protracted divorce that will only be completed in 2020.
Absa chair Wendy Lucas-Bull said at the bank’s AGM on Tuesday that the bank has passed the halfway mark in the separation process, having moved all its regional bank’s core banking systems from the UK to SA in April. All digital systems were moved in May...
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