South Africa’s banking landscape is undergoing an unusual transformation.
As European lenders continue to retreat from Africa after more than a decade of shrinking their footprint, one of the world’s largest banks is preparing to move in.
First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), the United Arab Emirates’ biggest lender with more than $406 billion in assets—larger than South Africa’s Standard Bank and FirstRand combined—has cleared a major legal hurdle in its bid to establish operations in Africa’s most sophisticated financial market after winning a trademark dispute in the country’s Supreme Court of Appeal earlier this month.
The ruling does not automatically grant FAB a banking licence, but it removes one of the final legal obstacles before the lender formally applies to South African regulators.
The move raises a bigger question than the arrival of another foreign bank.
Why is one of the world’s largest lenders expanding into South Africa at a
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