with mcb group . the mauritius commercial bank ltd type private subsidiary industry financial institution founded 1 september 1838 ; 178 years ago 1838 09 01 founder mr. james blyth headquarters 9 15 sir william newton street port louis mauritius products banking number of employees 2 950 2013 parent mcb group slogan everyday we will help make something happen website mauritius commercial bank mauritius commercial bank mcb is a commercial bank in mauritius . it was one of the commercial banks licensed by the bank of mauritius the country s central bank and the nation s banking regulator . the bank s headquarters are located in port louis mauritius . contents 1 overview 2 history 2.1 the beginning 2.2 the early years 2.3 post war growth 2.4 a regional leader 2.5 group reorganization 3 ownership 4 governance 5 moody s ratings 6 controversy mauritius commercial bank national pensions fund scandal 7 see also 8 references 9 sources overview edit mauritius commercial bank founded in 1838 1 is the oldest and largest banking institution of mauritius . it is also the oldest banking institution south of the sahara and one of the oldest banks of the commonwealth to have preserved its original name . mcb has a local network of 40 modern branches and 150 atms the holding structure of the mcb group translates its two fold strategy namely diversification into financial services through local subsidiaries and associated companies and regional expansion through its foreign subsidiaries . mcb operates in madagascar maldives mozambique and seychelles . the group has also consolidated its presence in r union mayotte and paris through bfcoi its associate . the mcb opened a representative office in johannesburg south africa in 2008 . moreover the group is actively involved in project and trade financing in various countries of the sub saharan region while being engaged in other markets such as india . history edit the beginning edit the mauritius commercial bank s history started on september 1 1838 when governor sir william nicolay proclaimed the establishment of la banque commerciale de l sle maurice in port louis . the bank was an initiative by a group of traders of the capital headed by mr. james blyth and mr. william hollier griffiths who wanted to establish an alternative to the bank of mauritius which they felt favoured the planters on the island . the bank started business with an authorised capital of 100 000 pounds sterling around 500 000 piastres in premises situated at rue de paris subsequently rue desforges now sir seewoosagur street . in 1839 her majesty queen victoria granted a royal charter to the newly established bank under the name of the mauritius commercial bank mcb . the british government renewed the charter every twenty years until 18 august 1955 when the bank became a limited liability company . the early years edit mcb encountered numerous difficulties in its first hundred years . mcb opened its first branch in curepipe in the centre of the island in 1920 . it did not open another branch until after world war ii . post war growth edit in 1949 lloyds bank became a shareholder . in 1955 mcb became a limited liability company . at this point mcb becames the first bank to set up branches in rural locations mah bourg in 1955 flacq in 1958 triolet in 1959 and goodlands in 1963 . other branches followed . in 1960 mcb bank moved to the current location of its headquarters at sir william newton street at the time rue de l eglise . mauritius achieved its independence in 1968 . a regional leader edit mcb began its international expansion in 1991 when it opened representative offices in paris and antananarivo madagascar . together with cr dit lyonnais 40 % and banque de la r union a subsidiary of cr dit lyonnais 25 % mcb 35 % established banque internationale des mascareignes an offshore unit based in mauritius . in 1998 cr dit lyonnais confirmed the transfer to caisse d pargne provence alpes corse cepac of its remaining shares 25.5 % in banque internationale des mascareignes . the next year mcb became the majority shareholder of banque fran aise commerciale oc an indien bfcoi which is registered in france with the previous owner banque indosuez retaining an interest . bfcoi had branches in r union island 9 mayotte 4 and the seychelles 1 and a head office in paris . mcb also established union commercial bank in antananarivo . the original shareholders were mcb 70 % standard bank investment corporation ltd 10 % bfcoi 10 % fiaro 5 % and soci t manofi 5 % . by 2000 mcb s share ownership had risen to 79 % . currently the bank has three branches . then in 1992 mcb converted its representative office in paris to a branch . n 1999 mcb established uni o comercial de bancos mo ambique in maputo mozambique in partnership with bfcoi and proparco . by 2000 mcb s shareholding was 76 % as it had bought out proparco s 18.75 % stake . the next year mcb acquired the minority stake cr dit agricole indosuez held in bfcoi increasing its own stake by 22.22 % to 88.88 % . this followed the takeover of banque indosuez by the cr dit agricole group which itself had operations in both r union and mayotte in direct competition with bfcoi . mcb acquired the minority stake cr dit agricole indosuez held in bfcoi increasing its own stake by 22.22 % to 88.88 % . this followed the takeover of banque indosuez by the cr dit agricole group which itself had operations in both r union and mayotte in direct competition with bfcoi . in 2003 mcb and soci t g n rale agreed that they would split the ownership of bfcoi . however the agreement did not include bfcoi s operations in the seychelles . mcb therefore incorporated a new fully owned subsidiary mauritius commercial bank seychelles mcb seychelles to take over bfcoi s operations there . group reorganization edit since its regional expansion mcb operated as both a licensed bank and a holding company . in 2013 mcb embarked on a reorganization that sought to separate the banking and non banking operations and raise capital in order to position itself for future growth . the restructure was as follows 2 mcb group limited was incorporated to be the ultimate holding company in the group . shareholders of mcb exchanged their mcb shares for mcb group shares on a 1 1 ratio . these shares were then listed on the sem . mcb investment holding ltd mcbih was then incorporated to act as the intermediary holding company of all the banking investments of the group . mcb s entire stock was transferred from mcb group to mcbih in exchange for shares . the banking subsidiaries held by mcb were then unbundled to mcbih while non banking subsidiaries and investments were unbundled mcb group . at the end of the reorganization mcb remained a commercial bank with no subsidiaries while mcb group s structure operated under three clusters i.e. 3 banking non banking financial other investments ownership edit the shares of mcb were listed on the stock exchange of mauritius from 1989 to april 5 2014 when they were replaced by those of mcb group . mauritius commercial bank is currently a wholly owned subsidiary of mcb group . governance edit mauritius commercial bank is governed by an eight person board of directors with j. g rard hardy serving as the president of the board and pierre guy noel as the ceo . moody s ratings edit foreign currency deposit baa1 p 2 foreign currency issuer baa1 global local currency deposit baa1 p 2 bank financial strength d nsr senior debt mtn program foreign currency aa3.za nsr subordinated debt mtn program foreign currency a3.za controversy mauritius commercial bank national pensions fund scandal edit early in february 2003 amina rojoa the accountant responsible for the national pensions fund npf deposit accounts informed prime minister sir anerood jugnauth that the npf deposits at the mcb could not be traced . on 14 february 2003 known afterwards as mcb s black friday the mauritius commercial bank announced in a press communiqu that it had discovered a large scale fraud which had resulted in the misappropriation of over rs . 600 m. between 1991 and 2002 . the fraud was alleged to have been committed by one of the bank s senior managers robert lesage . he was accused of fraudulently abstracting funds belonging to the mcb and tampering with clients accounts . the mcb started proceedings in mauritius against lesage and thirty seven defendants . the most important ones involved were sea rock paradise ltd 1989 the ha yeung couple buy shares of masilamani and veemlah veerasamy . angel beach resorts ltd 1987 teeren appasamy dev manraj and donald ha yeung s wife shareholders as from 1997 . teeren appasamy and marc daruty de grandpr directors since august 2001 . belle beach ltd teeren appasamy sole director . handsome investment ltd 1991 shareholders donald ha yeung & mrs. pit ho wong ching hwai . quartet development co ltd 1986 first shareholders alain richard voon donald ha yeung prithiniah geerjanand and mrs hurkissoon rambaruth . geerjanand khoosman and sudarshan bhadain shareholders in 1990 . the latter had claimed that without his knowledge shares in quartet were put in his name while he was a student and to which he never consented . 4 magarian cie ltd 1988 bhardooaz babeedin and deochand nundloll shareholders . in 1994 donald ha yeung joins in . advance engineering ltd 1988 shareholders narainsamy sadien sudeshj dawoodharry and danesh sampathlall . mauri beach travel and tours ltd 1997 dev manraj also director ravi ramdewar also secretary donald ha yeung and his wife director shareholders and renu manraj one of the directors . the independent commission against corruption icac accused npf accountant rojoa of conspiracy with lesage . charged with embezzlement and money laundering lesage involved two top managers of the mcb . he was later granted immunity by the independent commission against corruption icac . attempts were made to challenge the immunity since it had not been granted or confirmed by the director of public prosecution . as the investigation unfolded icac identified the main beneficiary as london based mauritian businessman teeren appassamy . money was credited to accounts of ten companies and five persons including appassamy the alleged master swindler . they are ravi ramdewar his solicitor ; former civil servant and consultant to the mauritius commercial bank dev manraj his companies director ; economist donald ha yeung his agent ; and his brother tamby appasamy . they as well as mcb top managers were provisionally charged . teeren appasamy pointed mcb general manager pierre guy no l as the banker he had dealings with . the latter was charged of having willfully and criminally conspired with robert lesage and teeren appasamy to engage in several transactions involving a sum of rs 36 million . this charge was later struck out on a technicality . mcb s assistant general manager philippe a. forget was charged with failing to report a suspicious transaction as file manager for two companies of teeren appasamy . philippe forget also a major shareholder of the prominent newspaper l express mauritius was arrested and released on bail . charges against forget were eventually changed and then struck out . the fraud action was soon followed by a claim by mcb in mauritius against mauritius union assurance mua under its insurance policies . mua in turn claimed against its reinsurers dornoch ltd. and others . on 19 january 2005 the reinsurers rejected mua s claim because of negligent misstatement non disclosure and deceit . they later served proceedings against mua and mcb . the allegations of misrepresentation made against mua and mcb were based upon answers given in a lloyds bankers policy