Barclays Bank Officially Commences Trading As ABSA Bank of Kenya

The Barclays Bank of Kenya is now officially ABSA Bank of Kenya after a vigorous and successful rebranding that has taken tens of moons to be realized.

Last week, the bank officially commenced trading on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) as ABSA Bank Kenya Plc, after the bourse temporarily suspended the trading of the lender’s shares to allow the settlement of outstanding obligations as well as a change of its trading ticker code, as the lender finalized its brand transition.

The rebranding brought an end to a process that began in 2018, following Barclays Plc’s reduction of its stake in Barclays Africa Group from 62.0 percent to 15.0 percent.

As of Q3’2019, Barclays disclosed that it had spent 910.0 million shillings in rebranding expenses in the nine months to September 2019.

Additionally, in December 2019, Barclays Kenya hired an additional 463 employees on permanent contracts and 700 workers on a contract basis, as the company sought to fast track its growth in the market following the removal of interest rate caps.

Currently, most of the bank’s branches around the country have adopted the new corporate identity, logo and brand name, beating its initial rebranding deadline set for June 2020.

“We expect the exercise to positively impact the bank’s image, as the lender takes advantage of the transition to refocus its strategy. However, we expect that its bottom-line performance will take a hit as a result of rebranding costs incurred,” said Cytonn in a report.

ABSA Bank of Kenya now becomes the first bank in Kenya for holding among the longest transition process, the greater part of which involved educating and preparing the customers of the transition. Most customers we spoke to are excited about the transition and hope that the promise of better services by the lender will be realized as the days go by.

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Do you think the transition of Barclays Bank of Kenya to the ABSA Bank of Kenya was a success?