SBS now not an acronym but stand-alone word, Efforts of conversion started in 2012
Mbabane – The conversion of the Swaziland Building Society (SBS) to a commercial bank will see the financial institution assume a new name.
The proposed name of the financial institution will be SBS Bank of Eswatini (SBE) and this was revealed by the SBS Managing Director Mbali Sibanyoni at the Open House Hotel in Mbabane during an engagement meeting with the media on the planned conversion.
Sibanyoni said emaSwati should not be confused by ‘SBS’ in the new proposed name of the financial institution. SBS was an acronym for Swaziland Building Society. The media asked if the proposed name of SBS Bank of Eswatini would not be logically incorrect as the acronym incorporated ‘Swaziland’ and yet the full proposed name included ‘Eswatini’.
“SBS is the newly proposed name will no longer be an acronym but will be a stand-alone name. The decision to incorporate ‘SBS’ was taken not to confuse the nation as it had become a brand of the financial institution in its 62 years of operation in the kingdom,” she said.
The MD highlighted that the process to convert the society into a commercial bank started in 2012 and this she said was due to the fact that they had to ensure that the conversion was legally correct, financially correct and economically correct for the society and the nation.
It was earlier reported that the conversion of Swaziland Building Society into a bank lies with stakeholders. This follows a report of the ministry of finance portfolio committee on the Building Societies Amendment Bill, 2019, Bill No. 12. The portfolio committee was asked when the conversion would take place. Responding to the question, the committee mentioned that after the promulgation of the Bill into an Act, SBS will call an annual general meeting where all stakeholders will be informed about the conversion and it will only be upon members to agree or disagree.
Further, it was questioned whether the conversion of SBS into a bank would not prejudice the banking sector. The response was that there was no way this initiative could negate the banking sector. Instead, it was highlighted that this would assist the bank get loans at a more favourable rate and subsequently offer more competitive products to its customers. It was stated that in most jurisdictions, building societies had been phased out.
Moreover, a query was posed that after the conversion of the financial institution, who would assume the directorship. It was also asked what would happen to the employees. The response was that there would not be many changes as it was not like the business was being sold. It was cited that this would be a conversion and that the successor company would still have the same directors.
It was added that the fact of the matter was that Building Society was where it was today through the effort of its employees. For this reason, there was no way the society could do something that would impact negatively on its employees. It was rather highlighted that there were prospects of good opportunities as this would bring growth to the bank.
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