Top 10 Banks In Zambia: Updated 2024

Which are the top 10 banks in Zambia? You must immediately close your bank account if it is not hosted by one of the four banks listed in this post. I'm just kidding🤣
 

Here are the top 10 banks in Zambia :

1. Standard Chartered Bank Zambia: A subsidiary of the well-known international banking group. 

It is known for its strong financial stability and global expertise. The bank offers a wide range of services, including personal and business banking, wealth management, and corporate banking.

2. Zambia National Commercial Bank (Zanaco): One of the largest banks in Zambia, with a strong presence across the country. 

It offers a comprehensive range of banking services, including personal and business accounts, loans, and investment products.


3. ABSA: Another prominent player in the Zambian banking sector. 

It has a long history in the country and is known for its strong corporate banking services. 

ABSA Bank Zambia offers a range of products and services, including personal and business accounts, loans, and investment options.

4. First National Bank (FNB) Zambia: Part of the FirstRand Group, one of the largest financial institutions in Africa. 

The bank offers a wide range of banking services, including personal and business accounts, loans, and investment products.

 FNB Zambia is known for its innovative approach to banking, with a strong focus on digital solutions.

5. Indo Zambia Bank (IZB): A local bank that has been operating in Zambia for over 25 years.

 It offers a range of banking services, including personal and business accounts, loans, and investment options. 

Indo Zambia Bank has a strong focus on customer service and aims to provide personalized solutions to meet the unique needs of its customers.

6. Ecobank Zambia: Part of the Ecobank Group, a leading pan-African banking conglomerate. 

The bank offers a wide range of banking services, including personal and business accounts, loans, and investment products. 

Ecobank Zambia is known for its strong digital banking capabilities, providing customers with convenient and secure online banking options.

7. Stanbic Bank Zambia: A subsidiary of Standard Bank Group, one of Africa's largest banking groups. 

The bank offers a comprehensive range of banking services, including personal and business accounts, loans, and investment options. 

Stanbic Bank Zambia is known for its strong corporate banking services and has a solid reputation for its expertise in trade finance.

8. Cavmont Bank: A local bank that has been operating in Zambia for over 50 years.

 It offers a range of banking services, including personal and business accounts, loans, and investment options. 

Cavmont Bank is known for its personalized approach to banking, providing tailored solutions to meet the unique needs of its customers.

9. Atrasmara Bank:  Recently changed from Finance Bank Plc. Is one of the top 10 banks in Zambia that has boasted of improving the economy of Zambia. They have savings, current, and other types of accounts for their customers.

10. Access bank: Despite not having many customers Acess Bank has been in existence for many years. It has mobile money functionality to enable customers to manage transactions easily.

Why open a bank account?

Regardless of your income level, banks are now crucial for both the protection and accessibility of your funds. 

Everyone wants to be financially secure, but what may be annoying is having trouble accessing your funds or, worse, having unnoticed expenses keep your bank account lower than you would have liked.

 Or perhaps you tried contacting your bank but were unsuccessful since some banks have such awful customer service. 

Which Zambian banks do you believe are the greatest, and with whom would you most like to register an account? Keeping cash at home has drawbacks of its own, such as reckless spending or theft.

 I had to register accounts with more than four banks because of my online spending requirements, and it was because of this that I learned a lot about the top banks in Zambia. 

The greatest banks are those that offer excellent customer service, reasonable monthly administration costs, modern technology that makes it simple for account holders to access their money, and fair interest rates on loans. 

Based on conversations with customers and years of expertise, this site will present the list of banks in Zambia that are suggested to host your account.

top 10 banks in Zambia
Photo by YouTube Civic Academy


Top 4 banks in Zambia

Is the primary reason you have a bank account to save or spend money? In any scenario, you should want a reputable bank to handle your money. The following Zambian banks are ones you might want to open an account with:

1. Standard Chartered Bank. (Stanchart Zambia PLC).

 
One of the oldest and most well-known banks in Zambia, Standard Chartered Bank offers a wide range of products and services.

Because of its state-of-the-art online banking system and excellent customer assistance, Standard Chartered Bank is preferred by both consumers and companies. 

Stanchart Zambia has won several awards as the best-performing Bank of the year in Zambia. 

Standard Chartered Bank has excellent bank security with great customer care. 

We have moved to a digital world as a country and if there is a bank that is technologically updated is Stanchart Bank. 

They have contact lines ready to talk to the customers and all your issues get solved just by calling them. 

If you need a bank that is trusted and stick to its word then your direction should be towards stanchart bank Zambia. 

Am not here to sweet talk, let truth be told.

You can open an account online without problems and have your credit or debit card delivered to your doorstep. 

No need to waste time and money to move to the branch for obvious issues like it's the case with another bank. 

When Stanchart customer care says wait for 24 hrs for the transaction exactly their systems are well programmed to do as they say. 

For being honest and trustworthy standard chartered bank deserves a 9.5/10 scale. 

SC Mobile App is another innovation that the bank has implemented for easy account management and transactions seamlessly. 

2. FNB

First National Bank (FNB) may serve as a fallback for FirstRand Gather, one of Africa's largest money-related tech organizations.

 Focusing on computerized account management, FNB provides its customers with a reliable experience when it comes to saving money.

 They have gained recognition for their user-friendly mobile app that manages customers' banking needs within their customer's palms.

 FNB is one of the flexible banks that technology companies partner with example, Yellow Card Zambia. They accept many transitions from an online world across borders. 

3. ABSA

One of the best banks you may open an account with is Absa Bank Zambia Limited. 

They are reliable and provide a range of services and products to meet your financial requirements. Additionally, they are renowned for being the bank that uses technology to let people handle their own accounts stress-free. 

If you may be curious especially if this is when you were becoming interested in the banking world, Absa Bank Zambia was originally called Barclays Bank, changes started in the year 2020. 

Even with its former brand Absa has been the giant in the banking system. They have a strict account opening procedure and requirements, however,  due to security consciousness. 

4. Zanaco

Big, strong, and reliable. Is it? Zambia National Commercial Bank (Zanaco) PLC is a Zambian bank that was established over 55 years ago to meet the banking needs of the Zambian economy. 

Zanaco is living evidence to the saying that, the majority is not always right. Many Zambians have accounts with the bank maybe simply because it was the only bank they knew from family and friends. 

Some companies could pay salaries to employees only through Zanaco and this explains its popularity in the country. However, with new changes and management innovations, the bank has become one of the financial institutions that are advancing faster in the country.

 Today Zanaco is one of the best-performing commercial banks scooping a 2023 Bank of the Year award due to its wide customer reach, innovation, and stability. 

You can agree with me, Zanaco has a problem with customer care which I think is because of having more customers than they can serve. 

That's my opinion but yeah client support Iliko bad Ku Zanaco. For them to make a refund for a failed transaction can take up to a month, in other banks takes only about 72 hours to execute successfully. 

Banks Vs Small Credit Facilities in Zambia


There have been many microfinance lending institutions operating statically and online. 

The most interesting thing is that these small lending institutions have reduced interest rates on loans and the process to obtain financial assistance is even shorter than using banks. 

Some of them offer loans within minutes online in which some banks could tell you to wait for 5 working days after submitting a pamphlet of documents. 

With small lending institutions, the Bank of Zambia's increased lending rates do not affect existing customers. Not sure exactly but the threat to commercial banks brought by microfinance must be bigger.

 However, there are disadvantages to using these small lending companies because some of them are just fishing ventures for people's sensitive information. 

Loan scams have become so common also in the past few years in Zambia. The fake microfinance will always pop up online and promise a very small interest rate with longer loan tenures. 

Banks on the other hand are more secure even though patience is needed. The unpopular demerit about commercial banks is the tendency to increase either tenure or deduction amount which is very frustrating for an average person.


Summary

Peer pressure, distinct banking demands, and effective bank marketing strategies are the main reasons why people opt to open accounts with particular banks rather than doing a critical examination. It's crucial to select a bank that can satisfy our expectations for financial management because banks' primary function is to hold money and handle transactions on your behalf.