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Commercial banks are entities licensed under the Financial Services Act 2010 to conduct banking business in the country. Commercial banks provide, among others, payments and other financial services such as account services, loans, overdrafts, cash withdraws and deposit facilities to their customers.

  • Facilitate payment services e.g. issuance of cheques, cheque clearing, Auto Teller Machines services; cards services, point of sale devices, digital financial service solutions.
  • Provide opportunities for savings. e.g. Savings Accounts, Fixed Deposits accounts, Current Accounts or accounts borrowing
  • Provide advances i.e. loans and overdrafts
  • Facilitate international trade

    • Facilitate other related services such as status reports; guarantees; safe custody and it may also engage in regular and recurrent business of fiduciary nature.

    You can open a bank account at any of the following licensed commercial Banks

    • National Bank of Malawi Plc
    • First Capital Bank
    • Standard Bank Plc
    • MyBucks Banking Corporation
    • NBS Bank Plc
    • FDH Bank Plc
    • Ecobank
    • CDH Investment Bank Limited

  • Deposit funds are put in a fixed account for an agreed period of.  A customer has the option to do partial withdrawals. However, they forfeit interest for the particular amount withdrawn.
  • Provide higher interest income than what is available on savings accounts or current accounts
  • The interest rate agreed remains unchanged till the fixed deposit attains maturity
  • Also called time deposits accounts

  • Payments
  • Account Management
  • Investment advice
  • Savings accounts
  • Current accounts
  • Fixed Deposit accounts
  • ATM Cards
  • Mobile Banking
  • Electronic Banking
  • Loans
  • buying and selling of foreign currency
  • International trade

    • No! Reserve Bank of Malawi does not open accounts for individuals.It deals with regulated entities such as commercial banks.

  • An interest-bearing deposit account held at a commercial bank that provides a modest interest rate.
  • Banks or financial institutions may limit the number of withdrawals a customer can make from your savings account each month
  • Some banks may require customers are required to maintain a certain monthly average balance in the account.

    • d.  In most cases, banks do not provide cheques with savings accounts.

    e.  Account maintenance fees are no longer charged on savings accounts (savings accounts with no value addition services – without SMS alerts, electronic banking, internet banking) in Malawi

  • A deposit account held at a commercial bank that allows the account to have a zero  balance
  • Also called demand accounts, transactional accounts or checking accounts.
  • Can be accessed using cheques, ATMs, electronic debits, among other methods.
  • Mostly used for payment purposes.

    • e.  Normally, does not attract interest on deposits, however, some banks do pay interest within a minimum threshold of deposits

    f.  Account maintenance fees are no longer charged on ordinary current accounts (these are current accounts with no value added services such as SMS alerts, electronic banking, internet banking)

    Financial institutions are required by law to adequately identify and verify the identity of the customer. This is also commonly referred to as Know Your Customer (KYC). Note however, the extent of the KYC processes or due diligence depends on the risk of the customer; products; delivery channel and geographical location.