African Bank

African Bank Limited (ABL) is a commercial bank in South Africa, historically focused on unsecured personal loans for the domestic market and, following the acquisition of Grindrod Bank in November 2022, active in business and commercial banking. ABL offers personal and debt consolidation loans, fixed prime interest loans, fixed and notice deposits, debit cards, silver and gold credit cards, extra value gift cards, tax-free Investment accounts, online banking as well as credit life insurance, personal accident insurance, funeral cover and other services. African Bank Ltd and African Insurance Group Ltd are wholly owned subsidiaries of African Bank Holdings Limited (ABHL). As of September 30, 2017, the Bank had total assets of R32.954 billion, net advances of R18.743 billion and total equity of R9.108 billion.

Number of Branches (2017): 388
Number of Employees (2017): 3,442

African Bank Holdings shareholders:
South African Reserve Bank
Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF)
Absa Trading and Investments Solutions (Proprietary)
Nedbank Limited
FirstRand Bank Ltd
Investec Bank Ltd
Standard Bank of South Africa
Capitec Bank Limited

Head office address:
59 16th Road
Midrand 1685
Johannesburg
Phone number: +27 11 256 9000
Website: www.africanbank.co.za

On May 26, 2022 African Bank announced that it had agreed to acquire the whole of Grindrod Bank from Grindrod Limited for R1.5 billion, in order to accelerate its entry into South African business banking. Grindrod Limited reported the sale as concluded on November 1, 2022 for gross proceeds of R1.6 billion, and the Grindrod Bank business was subsequently transferred into African Bank, which operates it as a business and commercial banking division alongside the unsecured personal lending book. The balance sheet, branch and employee figures above date from 2017 and predate that acquisition.

Barclays Africa Group Limited, one of the African Bank Holdings shareholders, changed its legal entity name to Absa Group Limited with effect from July 11, 2018 and is listed above under that name.