Barclays Zimbabwe safe and financially sound: central bank    

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), the central bank, said Wednesday Barclays Bank of Zimbabwe remains a safe and sound financial institution after its British parent company announced intention to exit Africa.

"The RBZ would like to assure stakeholders that, at this stage, Barclays Plc strategy does not impact on the status of Barclays Bank of Zimbabwe Limited on its everyday operations," Governor John Mangudya said in a statement.

Barclays Plc this week announced its intention to sell its 62.3 percent stake in Barclays Africa Group Limited (BAGL) which has operations in 11 African countries over the next two-three years citing global regulatory factors.

The parent company also added its direct subsidiaries, the Zimbabwean and Egyptian units, to the list of non-core assets that it holds with an intention to sell.

Barclays Plc holds 68 percent of Barclays Bank Zimbabwe, a publicly quoted company with the investing public holding 32.04 percent shares.

Barclays Bank of Zimbabwe managing director George Guvamatanga told analysts on Tuesday that even though there was intention to sell, the bank was still part of the Plc family and remained committed to serving its customers.

"We remain committed to the Zimbabwean market and in fact we are in the process of increasing our presence in the market," Guvamatanga said.

To show the bank was still in Zimbabwe, the managing director said the bank had set priorities for 2016 which include efficient deployment of capital, increasing client flow and continuing to grow the loan book.

The bank posted profit after tax of 3.9 million U.S. dollars for the year ended Dec. 31, 2015 while total income at 4.8 million dollars was 25 percent up on the 2014 level.

Barclays Bank has been operating in Zimbabwe for 104 years and is the second oldest bank after fellow British bank Standard Chartered. Enditem