Content area
Full Text
Charles Kie is chief executive of Banque Atlantique Groupe (BAG), the biggest independent bank group in West Africa. He joined BAG as its CEO in March 2008. Before that, he was the chief executive of Citigroup for West Africa, based in Senegal. He started his banking career with Citigroup in 1996 as a corporate finance executive and later became head of the corporate finance for Francophone countries in the sub-Saharan Africa department, before moving into general management in 2002. Interview by STEPHEN WILLIAMS.
African Banker: Over the last three decades, Groupe Banque Atlantique has become a major player in West Africa. How did this happen?
Charles Kie: Even though the group was created in 1978, its current structure only dates back to 2005 with the creation of the group's holding company, Atlantic Financial Group (AFG). Before that, we had only been present in Benin and Côte d'Ivoire. In Côte d'Ivoire we had two subsidiaries, one of which we acquired in 1997 from Barclays Bank.
Since 2006, our network has expanded to another five countries in West Africa: Senegal, Burkina Faso, Togo, Niger and Mah, and in 2009 we opened a subsidiary in Cameroon, Central Africa.
The group also includes an investment-bank arm (Atlantique Finance); a dedicated IT company (Atlantique Technologies) based in Côte d'Ivoire; a money transfer company (Money Cash) based in Geneva and a representative office in Paris.
Following the merger of our two banks in Côte d'Ivoire, the group now consists of 12 organisations - including eight banks in eight countries - all dedicated to providing efficient financial services in the various markets we operate in.
AFG is now the largest independent bank network in West Africa. We are in the process of relocating our headquarters from Togo to Côte d'Ivoire.
African Banker: What are the group's main capacities and strengths?
Charles Kie: Our clients have the services of a single banking group in all countries we operate in. They conduct banking transactions as if they were in their own country or in their own branch.
We also have a young and dedicated team of professionals who devote all their energies to making "banque atlantique" the brand of choice in our region. Our strong technology base has also allowed us to pioneer...