Banco Comercial do Atlântico

The Banco Comercial do Atlântico (Portuguese meaning the "Atlantic Commercial Bank", abbreviation: BCA) is a Cape Verdean bank. The headquarters of the company is located Praia, the largest city, on Santiago Island in Cape Verde. Its headquarters are at Praça Alexandre Albuquerque at the south end and covers the whole block, one surrounded by Avenida Amílcar Cabral, its second headquarters is in the southern end of Gamboa/Chã das Areias on Avenida de Cuba next to Avenida de Cidade de Lisboa, first built in 2009 and finished in 2011 and is an eight-story complex forming one of the country's tallest buildings. The bank has 23 branches and sub-branches spread over all 9 inhabited Cape Verdean islands. In 2000 it introduced ATMs and debit cards and now accounts for about half of both in the islands.

Its logo is colored rose and has blue letters, the "b" overlays with an "a" and in the left middle part is the "c", the acronym of the bank. Its slogan is nôs banco, na nôs terra which means Our bank, for our land" in Portuguese Creole.^[1]

History

A BCA branch in the São FIlipe on the island of Fogo

The bank was created on September 1, 1993, when the government separated the commercial and central banking functions of the Bank of Cape Verde, which had been operating since 1975. The government had created Bank of Cape Verde by nationalizing the operations of the Portuguese colonial and overseas banks, Banco Nacional Ultramarino, which had established its first branch in Cape Verde in 1865 and Banco de Fomento Nacional which had established its only branch in Mindelo, S. Vicente island, in 1973. Privatization of Atlântico began in 1998. Today, Caixa Geral de Depósitos, which acquired Ultramarino, owns about 53% of Atlântico; the government still owns 10%.

See also

• List of companies in Cape Verde

References

External links

• Official website (in Portuguese)
• Company profile on Banco Comercial do Atlântico