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| Exit CBM, enter Stanbic |
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by
Ayam Maeresa, 04 June 2003
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17:37:17
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The Commercial Bank of Malawi (CBM), whose majority shares were bought by South Africa’s Stanbic Africa Holdings two years ago, has said it will start doing business as Stanbic Bank mid this month.
CBM chief executive officer Victor Mbewe told the press in Blantyre the bank will cease to operate under the old name on June 17. He said the bank intends to replace external signs at all service points—including stationery—with those of Stanbic by this date.
Stanbic bought 60 percent shares in the bank through government’s privatisation process. The rest of the shares are held by senior staff, institutional investors and the public through the stock exchange.
But Mbewe said it will not be possible to rebrand all the items the bank or its customers use because of logistical or technical problems. He said such items include the automated teller machine cards, which the bank intends to replace with Autobank cards free of charge by next month.
He said all customers with cheque books bearing CBM signs will be allowed to use them until they are exhausted, upon which they will be issued with newly branded ones.
He said the bank’s new sales plan will be driven by an open link between clients and managers.
“We believe that we can deliver a service second to none if our house is clean,” said Mbewe.
He said the bank will also merge its Blantyre Henderson Street branch, Blantyre Main and Corporate Banking Centre to create one giant banking house.
He said the bank is also busy adopting the Stanbic banking computer system that, he said, is less labour intensive. Apart from bringing the bank in line with the Stanbic family in the other 17 countries the international bank operates, he said the computer system will improve automated services.
“One may feel that this major change will bring about major redundancies. This is not the case because our numbers have been reduced by voluntary retirement scheme offered to staff earlier,” said Mbewe.
About 68 employees have to-date opted to get out the bank through the scheme.
Marketing manager Margaret Kubwalo said Stanbic will not bring anything that will disadvantage local clients. She said Stanbic will respect the traditional banking practices on the ground.
“It’s like this big animal comes in to take over but we are just deriving the best banking practices from Stanbic,” said Kubwalo. |
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