ZB Bank

General information

ZB Financial Holdings Limited was incorporated in Zimbabwe in May 1989, as a holding company for a group of companies, which have been providing commercial and merchant banking and other financial services since 1951.

The first operations of its subsidiaries began in 1951. By 1961, there were nine branches operating countrywide. In August that same year, the company was sold to the Netherlands Bank of Rhodesia and it maintained a steady growth through acquisitions of related companies as well as expansion of existing operations.
In 1972, the company changed its name from The Netherlands Bank of Rhodesia Limited to Rhodesia Banking Corporation Limited and then to Rhobank in 1979. It changed its name once again in 1981 to Zimbabwe Banking Corporation after the Government purchased the majority shareholding.
In 1989, the directors of the company undertook a restructuring exercise with the objective of bringing all subsidiaries and associates under one investment and holding company, Zimbabwe Financial Holdings Limited. The restructuring allowed the Bank to concentrate exclusively on providing commercial banking services to the public.
The new holding company was ideally placed to explore other profitable business activities, which were not previously possible because of restrictions placed on the investment activities of the Bank in terms of the Banking Act.
The acquisition of a number of subsidiaries over the years allowed the Group to offer a wide range of services which include commercial and merchant banking, hire purchase and leasing as well as trust and executor services. On October 30 2006, the Group adopted a new monolithic brand and formally changed its name to ZB Financial Holdings Limited. This change was also meant to coincide with the merger with former Intermarket Holdings units, namely(Intermarket Bank, Intermarket Building Society, Intermarket Reinsurance, Intermarket Life and Intermarket Bank Zambia), which units have since adopted the ZB brand.
This effectively means ZB Financial Holdings is one of the most diversified financial services counter on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange.