‘Barclays rate scandal won’t affect business in Africa’

BARCLAYS Plc doesn’t anticipate that the rate-rigging scandal which has rocked its operations in the UK will have any impact on its operations Africa, the international financial service giant has said.

In a statement, issued by Barclays in the UK on Thursday, the bank said it remains ‘absolutely committed to our One Bank in Africa strategy as we seek to support each of our local operations by leveraging our global product and services capability to better serve all our clients and customers’.The statement followed days after Barclays Africa’s chief executive and head of strategy on the continent, Kennedy Bungane, visited Namibia. Barclays is in the process of buying 55,3 per cent in Capricorn Investment Holdings (CIH), which would give it a 49,9 per cent stake in Bank Windhoek.South Africa’s Absa originally applied to the Bank of Namibia (BoN) to get the CIH stake, but the central bank granted provisional approval to Barclays, who owns a majority stake in Absa.Absa Namibia, who runs a representative Absa office in Windhoek, issued a statement saying Bungane visited the country to ‘acquaint himself with the economic and business environment’, and met with regulators, policy-makers, customers and employees.Bungane said Namibia was an important market for Absa and Barclays.’We remain on track with our One Africa strategy. Both the Barclays and Absa boards have made their commitment to this clear,’ said Bungane, who is responsible for all operational and business activities in Africa outside of South Africa for both Barclays and Absa.’Together, Barclays and Africa represent a strong franchise across the continent for the benefit of customers and clients. We have a major role to play in supporting the economic development of the continent,’ Bungane said.Barclays was recently shaken by a scandal over traders manipulating the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) and was fined US$453 million by US and British authorities.In its UK statement, Barclays said it has ‘announced a thorough root and branch inquiry into our business practices and processes. As well as making public the findings of this inquiry, we will also be implementing a new mandatory code of conduct for all our staff’.Barclays has also published an open letter to all its customers apologising for what has happened. ‘It is our duty now to show you over the coming months and years how we have changed and why we deserve your business,’ Barclays said in its statement.