Mauritius Commercial Bank

Foundation and early years

The bank was founded by a group of Port Louis merchants and traders led by James Blyth and William Hollier Griffiths. They wanted an alternative to the island's existing bank, the Bank of Mauritius (unrelated to the present central bank), which they considered to favour the island's planters. La Banque Commerciale de Maurice opened on 1 September 1838 in rue de Paris (now Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Street). In 1839 Queen Victoria granted it a royal charter for twenty years. The charter was renewed every twenty years until 18 August 1955, when the bank became a limited liability company. Its 2026 financial statements date the charter to 1838.

The bank opened its first branch outside Port Louis, in Curepipe, in 1920. After the conversion to a limited company it expanded into rural areas, with branches at Mahébourg (1955), Flacq (1958), Triolet (1959) and Goodlands (1963). In 1960 it moved its head office to Sir William Newton Street (then rue de l'Église), where it remains. Its shares were listed on the Stock Exchange of Mauritius (SEM) in 1989.

Regional expansion (1990s–2008)

Between 1991 and 1999 MCB expanded into the other islands of the south-west Indian Ocean and into Mozambique. In 1992 it acquired Banque Française Commerciale Océan Indien (BFCOI), which had branches in Réunion, Mayotte, the Seychelles and Paris. The same year it founded Union Commercial Bank in Antananarivo, with Standard Bank and BFCOI as minority shareholders; the bank was renamed MCB Madagascar in 2007. In August 1999 MCB began operations in Maputo through a new subsidiary, União Comercial de Bancos (Moçambique), later MCB Moçambique.

In 2003 MCB and Société Générale agreed to share ownership of BFCOI equally, with Société Générale taking over its management. BFCOI's Seychelles operations were excluded from the deal and continued as a separate MCB subsidiary, MCB (Seychelles). In 2008 MCB opened a branch in Malé, the capital of the Maldives, inaugurated by President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom on 4 May; he described it as bringing MCB's presence to seven countries. The same year South Africa's Registrar of Banks approved an MCB representative office in Johannesburg.

National Pensions Fund fraud

In 2003 it emerged that a retired MCB manager had diverted about Rs 600 million deposited with the bank by the National Pensions Fund and the National Savings Fund; MCB repaid the funds Rs 881.6 million, and in 2017 the bank itself was convicted of failing to keep adequate anti-money-laundering controls, a conviction upheld on appeal in 2025 with the fine reduced to Rs 1.2 million.

Group restructuring (2013–2014)

Until 2014 MCB was both a licensed bank and the holding company of the group's other businesses. Under a scheme of arrangement that took effect on 21 February 2014, shareholders exchanged their MCB shares one-for-one for shares in a new holding company, MCB Group Ltd. MCB itself was placed under an intermediate company, MCB Investment Holding Ltd, which also took over the foreign banking subsidiaries. The non-banking subsidiaries were transferred to MCB Group. MCB's shares last traded on 24 March 2014, and MCB Group shares were listed on the SEM in their place in early April 2014. In October 2014 Moody's downgraded MCB, citing the new group structure.

Since 2015

MCB has shifted towards international banking, especially structured finance for oil and gas traders and producers in Africa. By 2022 more than half of its balance sheet was outside Mauritius. Reuters reported exposures of about US$850 million in Nigeria, US$300 million in Ghana and US$200 million in Senegal and Ivory Coast. MCB opened representative offices in Nairobi in January 2019 and in the Dubai International Financial Centre in 2019, and announced an office in Lagos in 2022.

In 2019/20 the COVID-19 pandemic pushed the bank's net impairment charge up to Rs 4.8 billion, from Rs 1.5 billion the year before. Of this, Rs 3.3 billion was provisions against loans that were still performing, and profit after tax fell 15.5% to Rs 7.4 billion. Profit has risen every year since, and in 2025/26 total assets passed Rs 1 trillion for the first time.

MCB reports two segments. Home Markets covers banking in Mauritius. Corporate and Institutional Banking and Private Banking (CIBPB) covers international corporate lending and wealth management. In 2025/26 Home Markets provided 43% of operating income and CIBPB 57%. Internally the bank is organised into Retail, Business Banking, Private Wealth Management, and Corporate and Institutional Banking.

Retail and business banking

For individuals, MCB offers:

current, savings and multi-currency accounts;

home, personal, education and car loans, including "green" loans and leases;