credit card options in South Africa
credit card options in South Africa
ABSA Bank ABSA Bank is one of the big four banks in South Africa (the other three are Standard Bank, FNB and Nedbank), providing a variety of banking and financial service. ABSA stands for "Amalgamated Banks of South Africa", and is a wholly owned subsidiary of ABSA Group Limited.
website |
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Registered office |
3rd Floor |
Postal address |
P O Box 7735 |
Telephone |
0860 008 600 |
Whilst ABSA Group Limited is publicly listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the majority owner is Barclays Bank PLC:
Owners of ABSA Group Limited |
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Barclays 56.5% |
Allan Gray 6.7% |
PIC 4.8% |
Old Mutual 3.3% |
Investec 3.1% |
Coronation 2.7% |
Sanlam 2.3% |
Stanlib 2.0% |
Capital Group 1.9% |
AXA Financial SA 1.8% |
Barclays Bank is domiciled and incorporated in the United Kingdom. Barclays' address registered office is at 1 Churchill Place, Canary Wharf, UK.
ABSA Bank Limited is a 100% subsidiary of ABSA Group Limited, within which the following businesses are housed: |
Absa Card, Absa Home Loans, Absa Private Bank,
Absa Vehicle and Asset Finance, Flexi Banking Services, Retail Banking Service and Small Business. |
ABSA Financial Services Limited is a 100% owned subsidiary of ABSA Group Limited, which owns Absa Life Limited and Absa Insurance Company Limited. ABSA Group Limited also owns 80% of Banco Austral, Sarl (Mozambique), 55% of the National Bank of Commerce Limited (Tanzania) and 55% of Banco Commercial Angolano (Angola).
Chairman |
Group Chief Executive |
Danie C Cronjé |
Steve F Booysen |
W Somerville
3rd Floor, Absa Towers East
170 Main Street
Johannesburg
Gauteng Province
2001
South Africa
williams@absa.co.za
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Appointments |
Retirements & |
6 Dec 2006 |
YZ Cuba |
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23 Oct 2006 |
FF Seegers |
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23 Oct 2006 |
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DL Roberts |
30 Sep 2006 |
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LW Maasdorp |
27 Jul 2005 |
D Bruynseels ( an employee of Barclays PLC, whose directors' fees are paid to Barclays PLC). |
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1 Jan 2005 |
JH Schindehütte |
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1 Jan 2005 |
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F J du Toit |
31 Dec 2004 |
DE Baloyi |
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1 Sep 2004 |
LL von Zeuner |
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16 Aug 2004 |
LN Angel |
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16 Aug 2004 |
LW Maasdorp |
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1 Aug 2004 |
SF Booysen (appointed Chief Executive) |
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1 Aug 2004 |
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ER Bosman |
9 Jul 2004 |
PT Motsepe |
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Feb 2004 |
Rupert Pardoe appointed deputy Group chief executive. |
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9 Jul 2004 |
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GR Pardoe |
2003 |
Des C Arnold |
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2001 |
Tokyo MG Sexwale |
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2001 |
N Brigalia Bam |
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2001 |
Garth Griffin |
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2001 |
FJ (Frans) du Plessis |
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2000 |
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Marinus Daling |
1999 |
Franklin A Sonn |
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1998 |
Dirk Mostert |
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1997 |
ER (Nallie) Bosman |
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1996 |
P Du P (Paul) Kruger |
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1996 |
Louren N Jonker |
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1994 |
Peter E I Swartz |
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1994 |
Brian P Connellan |
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1992 |
Dave C Brink |
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1992 |
AS (Attie) du Plessis |
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1991 |
Theo van Wyk |
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1988 |
Leslie Boyd |
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1987 |
Danie C Cronjé |
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Absa Bank generally revises its charges once a year in January.
14 Aug 2008 |
Absa announces that it is in the process of implementing a CashSend system, to allow customers to electronically send money via internet banking (or an Absa ATM or mobile banking) to a receipient, who can then withdraw the money from an Absa ATM using a ten digit withdrawal number known to both parties. |
31 Jul 2008 |
Absa announces that it has 1 million customers transacting online. |
24 Jul 2008 |
A prepaid debit card is launched. Money can be placed on the card via cash at an ATM or ABSA branch, or internet or cellphone banking. The card can be used at any ATM or shop displaying the VISA Electron sign. |
9 Jun 2008 |
ABSA's Christo Vrey indicates that ABSA has half a million cellphone banking clients. |
28 May 2008 |
ABSA starts offering 10 year fixed bonds to its home loan clients. |
May 2008 |
ABSA and FNB reduce their maximum home loans to 100% of the value of the loan (from 108%). |
20 May 2008 |
Having completed a pilot study, ABSA and 1time airline decide to roll out a plan to providing banking services (except withdrawals and deposits) in the air. 1time provides 2 seats on the plane for banking, and ABSA equipts the banker with a laptop and digital camera. On landing the laptop is synchronised with ABSA's mainframe. |
8 May 2008 |
ABSA sets up a Facebook profile. |
May 2008 |
ABSA Bank launches Absa International Mortgages, which assists South Africans in financing international property purchases by providing access to Barclays International Mortgage Services. |
2 May 2008 |
ABSA Bank gets a provisional licence from the Bank of Namibia to operate a commercial bank in Namibia (there are currently 4 banks licenced in Namibia - Bank Windhoek, First National Bank of Namibia, Nedbank Namibia and Standard Bank Namibia). |
25 Apr 2008 |
Fitch downgrades Barclays' rating to AA. At the same time Fitch downgraded Absa Group Limited and Absa Bank Limited's rating. Barclays' capitalisation is weaker than many of its competitors. |
18 Apr 2008 |
ABSA purchases a 50% + 1 share stake in Woolworths Financial Services (which runs Woolworths' credit card and in-store accounts) for R875m cash. Woolworths has some 1.6 million in-store accounts and 169,000 visa credit cards. The Woolworths credit cards will be migrated from Mercantile to ABSA. South Africa's Woolworths is unrelated to the London-based Woolworths Group Plc. |
10 Apr 2008 |
The South African Reserve Bank increases its repo rate by 0.5% to 11.5%, and ABSA increases its prime lending rate to 15%. |
9 Apr 2008 |
At a dinner at Moyo on Spier Wine Estate to end the Cape Epic, ABSA donates R50,000 to the songo.info bmx project. |
7 Apr 2008 |
To assist their clients with safe online banking, ABSA is offering PC-Cillin security software to them for free. |
26 Mar 2008 |
An ABSA ATM in the Bergsig supermarket in Johannesburg is bombed (nobody is injured and no money is taken). |
Mar 2008 |
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20 Mar 2008 |
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19 Mar 2008 |
ABSA is implementing anti-skimming technology on its Self Service Kiosks and fully branded Absa ATMs. The "Jitter" software vibrates the card reader which sends a disrupted signal to illegal skimming devices. The Jitter software will result in the speed at which the bank card are sucked into and ejected from ATMs is a little slower than what is currently the case. |
23 Apr 2007 |
ABSA Group Limited's agm is held in Johannesburg, at the PW Sceales auditorium in the ABSA Towers. |
May 2006 |
ABSA Capital is launched, a combination of Absa Corporate and Merchant Bank and Barclays Capital. |
8 Nov 2006 |
ABSA sells its 34.4% stake in Capricorn Investment Holdings Limited (which owns inter alia Bank Windhoek). |
1 Jan 2006 |
ABSA purchases the South African holdings of Barclays Bank, as part of the strategy that ABSA should take over all the southern african holdings of Barclays. |
19 Aug 2005 |
KPMG resign as joint auditors of ABSA, and PricewaterhouseCoopers (who are auditors to Barclays) are appointed as joint auditors of ABSA. |
19 Aug 2005 |
A resolution is passed to change ABSA's year-end from 31 March to 31 December with effect from 31 December 2005, to bring it in line with its new parent-company - Barclays PLC. |
27 Jul 2005 |
In the largest ever foreign direct investment into South Africa, Barclays Bank PLC acquires a 56.4% stake in the ABSA Group for £2.6bn. |
9 May 2005 |
Barclays announces its offer to purchase a stake of up to 60% in the ABSA Group, at R82,50 per share. |
25 Apr 2005 |
A 50% stake in in Banco Comercial Angolano is acquired. |
Feb 2005 |
The Credit Committee: Large Exposures becomes operations. |
Jan 2005 |
The holding in Sineus Holdings AG is increased to 99.9%. |
Sep 2004 |
An additional 30% of Abvest Holdings (Proprietary) Limited is acquired. |
1 Jul 2004 |
Pursuant to the black economic empowerment and employee transactions to introduce empowerment shareholders in the ABSA Group, 79 237 500 redeemable cumulative option-holding preference shares are issued; 6 085 200 are issued to the Absa Group Limited Employee Share Ownership Programme (Absa ESOP) Trust and 73 152 300 are issued to Batho Bonke Capital (Proprietary) Limited. |
1 Jul 2004 |
Sixty one percent of Sineus Holdings AG is acquired. |
1 Jul 2004 |
ABSA purchases all the shares of Avena LeasePlan (Proprietary) Limited, |
Jun 2004 |
A BEE transaction is concluded. |
Oct 2002 |
The Deloitte & Touche Human Capital Corporation names ABSA the "best company to work for". |
Jan 2002 |
Banco Austral Mozambique is acquired. |
1 Apr 2000 |
A 51% stake in Unifer is acquired. |
1998 |
Allied Bank, United Bank and Volkskas Bank stop trading under their own names, from this point they all trade under the name "ABSA". |
1997 |
The name of the holding company is changed from "Amalgamated Banks of South Africa Limited" to "Absa Group Limited". |
31 Mar 1997 |
Members joining the ABSA retirement fund on or after 1 April 1997 are entitled to benefits under the defined contribution structure (all members had the option on 31 Mar 1997 to convert to the defined contribution structure, of which the majority did - the reminder are on the defined benefit structure). |
1 Apr 1996 |
ABSA Employees retiring after this date are not eligible for post-retirement medical benefits from the ABSA Group Pension Fund. The post-retirement medical benefit liability of pensioners who retired before 1 April 1996 is funded in the Absa Group Pension Fund. |
1992 |
Bankorp is acquired (which includes Bankfin, Senbank and Trustbank). |
1991 |
Allied Bank, United Bank, Volkskas Bank and parts of the Sage Group merge to formAmalgamated Banks of South Africa. |
1975 |
Danie C Cronje joins Volkskas. |
ABSA appoints Happy Ntshingila as director in charge of communications and marketing, reporting to report to the chief executive of Absa Retail Bank, Louis von Zeuner. Born on the 12th December 1960, Ntshingila obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree at Fort Hare, before working for Tiger Oats (manager of public relations), Unilever, Vodacom, IBM (editor), Ogilvy & Mather and and co-founded HerdBuoys Advertising and Marketing. 
Meeg Bank's chairperson (Professor Wiseman Nkuhlu) announces that it is to be acquired by ABSA Bank. Meeg Bank is South Africa's only remaining black-owned bank. Under the terms of the deal ABSA increases its holding in Meeg Bank Limited from