SA bank to open on Sundays

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s biggest retail bank Absa, controlled by Britain’s Barclays, has become the country’s first bank to open on Sundays, the company said late on Wednesday.

Absa said in a statement it had launched Sunday banking from 10h00 to 14h00 at two branches and would extend the services to other busy business centres across South Africa if the scheme was successful. The bank hopes opening on Sunday will help lure extra customers and improve safety in the country’s huge shopping malls, where shops and restaurants are forced to keep hefty sums of cash on premises on Sundays.”When it comes to customer service this initiative will give us a unique advantage over our competitors,” said Hanlie Britz, general manager in the Gauteng region around Johannesburg, where the pilot scheme was launched.Many South African shops already open on Sunday and sold alcohol for the first time late last year after the government scrapped a ban left over from conservative apartheid-era drinking laws – a move that angered religious groups.But Absa said it had consulted church groups before launching its Sunday trading plans and argued that the limited hours would “allow clients to attend church services first”.Absa, which said it would offer all services except foreign exchange on Sundays, said branches that started opening on Saturdays last year had seen better growth in accounts and more transactions.Barclays returned to retail banking in South Africa in July when it paid around US$4,3 billion for just under 54 per cent of Absa, marking the country’s biggest foreign direct investment yet.The British bank has since bought a further 14,5 million Absa shares.- Nampa-ReutersThe bank hopes opening on Sunday will help lure extra customers and improve safety in the country’s huge shopping malls, where shops and restaurants are forced to keep hefty sums of cash on premises on Sundays.”When it comes to customer service this initiative will give us a unique advantage over our competitors,” said Hanlie Britz, general manager in the Gauteng region around Johannesburg, where the pilot scheme was launched.Many South African shops already open on Sunday and sold alcohol for the first time late last year after the government scrapped a ban left over from conservative apartheid-era drinking laws – a move that angered religious groups.But Absa said it had consulted church groups before launching its Sunday trading plans and argued that the limited hours would “allow clients to attend church services first”.Absa, which said it would offer all services except foreign exchange on Sundays, said branches that started opening on Saturdays last year had seen better growth in accounts and more transactions.Barclays returned to retail banking in South Africa in July when it paid around US$4,3 billion for just under 54 per cent of Absa, marking the country’s biggest foreign direct investment yet.The British bank has since bought a further 14,5 million Absa shares.- Nampa-Reuters