VBS Mutual Bank Profile
A wholly black-owned specialist corporate finance and retail bank.
Registered with and regulated by the SARB, under banking license number 1051, governed by the Mutual Bank’s Act, 1993.
Established in 1982 and initially operated as Venda Building Society.
Corporate Head Office in Rivonia, Johannesburg and a spread of branches mainly in Limpopo.
Prior to 2014 the bank was relatively small and primarily involved in retail banking with many of its depositors consisting of burial societies and stokvels. The bank in turn issued mortgages and short term loans to its clients allowing them to use their property or banking deposits as collateral. The South African Public Investment Corporationinherited its shares in VBS bank when it succeeded the pension fund of the Venda bantustan government thereby giving it a 25% ownership stake in the bank. Largest shareholder in the bank was the Venda royal family which owned 51% of the bank.
Prior to coming under curatorship in 2018 the bank gain notoriety in 2016 when it gave a R7.8 million loan to then President Jacob Zuma when he was ordered to repay the state for controversial improvements to his personal homestead at Nkandla.