Barclays Bank Seychelles’ main branch officially opens at Victoria House |02 September 2019

Located on Independence Avenue for 54 years, Barclays Bank Seychelles Limited’s main Victoria branch has moved permanently to its new location at the Victoria House building, at the junction of Francis Rachel Street and State House Avenue.

In fact, the Barclays Bank Seychelles Limited’s main Victoria branch is located where Nouvobanq used to be before it moved to its new building.

The official opening of Barclays Bank Seychelles’ main branch at Victoria House was held on Friday evening during a short ceremony as part of activities to mark the 60th year of banking activities by Barclays Bank in Seychelles.

The Governor of the Central Bank of Seychelles (CBS) Caroline Abel and the managing director of Barclays Bank Seychelles (BBS) Johan Van Schalkwyk had the honour of cutting the blue ribbon to officially open the new branch.

Present to witness the event were the chairman of Barclays Bank Seychelles Jean Weeling-Lee, the second deputy governor of CBS Jennifer Sullivan, Barclays Bank Seychelles retail director Fabiola Horner, staff of the bank and other invited guests.

With the new branch stationed permanently, its former location on Independence Avenue will be renovated, revamped and modernised to accommodate certain current or new activities of Barclays Bank Seychelles, among other purposes.

Addressing the gathering, Mr Van Schalkwyk said the intention in the first place was to move the Barclays Bank Seychelles Independence branch temporarily to Victoria House. “But with the huge investment to renovate and equip this area and fit it with all the modern facilities, it is not worth moving out soon after,” he said, noting that the move was initially part and parcel of a revamping process of all of the bank’s branches and also an opportunity for preparing a new location for its new brand Absa.

Mr Van Schalkwyk said the new branch will offer the same services it was offering but in a more spacious and conducive atmosphere that will allow the staff to serve the customers to a more practical, modernised and quality banking. For the moment, Barclays Bank Seychelles has moved one of its two ATM machines from the Independence branch to Victoria House.

On the rebranding process to Absa, Mr Van Schalkwyk said that with Barclays Bank Seychelles joining the Absa family in early 2020, the only changes will be in the switch in the colour from blue to red and also in the banking ATM cards, cheque books and staff uniforms which will have the Absa logo.

“Clients will continue to enjoy the same service as they are enjoying now,” Mr Van Schalkwyk said.

“Just yesterday we marked our 60th anniversary of serving the people of Seychelles and contributing towards growing the economy of this country,” he added.

“We want to continue this legacy by giving our customers the best and the new branch is part of our on-going initiative to make the banking environment for our customers more conducive, comfortable and business friendly,” he pointed out.

Sixty-one-year-old Anne Camille, the longest serving employee with Barclays Bank Seychelles who has clocked 44 years of service and has worked at the Independence branch for 43 years before moving to the bank’s Capital City branch last year, said that compared to the old days when work pressure was less, the amount of work nowadays definitely makes it necessary for the main head office branch to move to a new and more spacious and conducive location as the old building was not meeting the required standards.

Barclays Bank Seychelles Limited started its banking business in Seychelles on August 29, 1959. It moved into the Independence location in 1965.

The accompanying photos were taken during Friday’s opening ceremony of Barclays Bank Seychelles Limited’s main Victoria branch.