Barclays bank is sounding the retreat in Africa, with plans being drawn up to drop some of its stake in Barclays Africa.<\/p>\n
The group currently holds a 62% stake in the Africa group which serves as its foothold onto the continent.<\/p>\n
While known as Absa locally, Barclays Africa is a group of banks operating across Africa, including Kenya and Botswana.<\/p>\n
According to a report by the Wall Street Journal<\/a>, Barclays was one of the few ‘western’ banks to form a big presence on the continent.<\/p>\n However, with many sub-Saharan economies in turmoil – including South Africa – the adventure no longer fits in with the group’s strategy.<\/p>\n The move comes as result of new Barclays CEO Jes Staley’s move to cut weak units from the bank.<\/p>\n Based in South Africa, Barclays Africa\/Absa has been hit hard by recent economic turmoil.<\/p>\n The rand has lost over 30% of its value in the past few weeks, while the country is plagued by poor economic policies and ongoing drought conditions.<\/p>\n The ANC Youth League blames Absa for the rand weakness, saying that Barclays itself is behind the crash.<\/p>\n The political group said that Barclays has been \u201cexcessively and aggressively\u201d selling the local currency for the past few months.<\/p>\n \u201cThis has created a panic in international commodity trading platforms like forex. The excessive selling by Barclays has in turn reduced the demand for the South African rand,\u201d the ANCYL said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe plan is to sell so much of the rand currency in order to drive down its price and then to later re-purchase it, which will push up its value as demand for it increases.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is how that they profiteer and play with our country, through their actions.\u201d<\/p>\n The league pointed out that in May 2015, Barclays was hit with a $2.4 Billion fine for rigging the foreign exchange market, and has, over time, paid a total of $638 million for misconduct related to Foreign Exchange at the New York Department of Financial Services.<\/p>\n They accused the finance house of ditching South Africa in favour of boosting the economies of their home countries.<\/p>\n Absa revolt as staff threaten to join Malema protest: report<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n We will shut \u2018racist\u2019 Absa down: Malema<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nMore on Absa<\/h3>\n