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.

Contact details of ABSA Bank Limited

website	www.absa.co.za
email	absa@absa.co.za
Registered office	3rd Floor Absa Towers East 170 Main Street Johannesburg Gauteng Province 2001 South Africa
Postal address	P O Box 7735 Johannesburg Gauteng Province 2000 South Africa
Telephone	0860 008 600

Who owns ABSA Group Limited?

Whilst ABSA Group Limited is publicly listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the majority owner is Barclays Bank PLC:

Owners of ABSA Group Limited
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 Group Limited owns the following subsidiaries

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).

Senior management of ABSA

Chairman	Group Chief Executive
Danie C Cronjé	Steve F Booysen

Company Secretary

W Somerville
3rd Floor, Absa Towers East
170 Main Street
Johannesburg
Gauteng Province
2001
South Africa
williams@absa.co.za

Appointments & resignations of directors of the ABSA Group Board

	Appointments	Retirements & Resignations
6 Dec 2006	YZ Cuba
23 Oct 2006	FF Seegers
23 Oct 2006		DL Roberts
30 Sep 2006		LW Maasdorp
27 Jul 2005	D Bruynseels ( an employee of Barclays PLC, whose directors' fees are paid to Barclays PLC).
1 Jan 2005	JH Schindehütte
1 Jan 2005		F J du Toit
31 Dec 2004	DE Baloyi
1 Sep 2004	LL von Zeuner
16 Aug 2004	LN Angel
16 Aug 2004	LW Maasdorp
1 Aug 2004	SF Booysen (appointed Chief Executive)
1 Aug 2004		ER Bosman
9 Jul 2004	PT Motsepe
Feb 2004	Rupert Pardoe appointed deputy Group chief executive.
9 Jul 2004		GR Pardoe
2003	Des C Arnold
2001	Tokyo MG Sexwale
2001	N Brigalia Bam
2001	Garth Griffin
2001	FJ (Frans) du Plessis
2000		Marinus Daling
1999	Franklin A Sonn
1998	Dirk Mostert
1997	ER (Nallie) Bosman
1996	P Du P (Paul) Kruger
1996	Louren N Jonker
1994	Peter E I Swartz
1994	Brian P Connellan
1992	Dave C Brink
1992	AS (Attie) du Plessis
1991	Theo van Wyk
1988	Leslie Boyd
1987	Danie C Cronjé

History of ABSA Bank

Mar 2008	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.
20 Mar 2008	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 49.7% to 74.5% at a cost of R53m for the additional shares. Meeg Bank’s reserve capital stood at some 11% – a single percent above the statutory requirement. ABSA has agreed to offer a 20% premium to the audited value of Meeg's shares at 31 March 2008, for the remainder of Meeg Bank bank. Meeg Bank was established in 1998 from the assets of the now closed Bank of Transkei, and is based in Umtata in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa.
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.
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, with effect from 1 May 2004.
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.

Financials

Annual report to 31 Dec 2006

Annual report to 31 Dec 2005

Annual report to 31 Mar 2004