Diamond Bank Plc
“Can a Nigerian universal bank scale financial inclusion through retail and SME banking across West Africa?”
Founded1990
HQLagos, Nigeria
IndustryBank / National
The story
Founded in 1990 as a Nigerian commercial bank, Diamond Bank grew into a universal bank by 2001 and became the first African bank to list GDRs on the London Stock Exchange in 2008. It positioned itself heavily around retail and SME financial inclusion in the 2010s, partnering with Women's World Banking on cash-flow-based MSME lending. Facing capital pressure, Diamond Bank was acquired by Access Bank in 2019 to form the combined Access Bank entity — the target as an independent listed bank no longer operates.
Last 12 months
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Product timeline
1990
Incorporated on December 20, 1990 as a private limited liability company· founding
2001
Became a universal bank in February 2001· pivot
2005
Listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange following a private placement· ipo
2008
Listed Global Depositary Receipts on the Professional Securities Market of the London Stock Exchange — first bank in Africa to do so· ipo
2017
Launched cash-flow based SME lending scheme in partnership with Women's World Banking· lending
2019
Acquired/merged with Access Bank Plc· acquisition
Acquisitions
Regulated entities
1
regulatory licence held by Diamond Bank Plc
Licence types, jurisdictions and registered entities are in the Embedded Finance Index report.
The stack
3 layers disclosed in Diamond Bank Plc’s embedded-finance stack
Banking / BaaS
Diamond Bank Plc (in-house)
Lending
in the full report
FX & payouts
in the full report
Accounting gap: none
21 more providers across 2 layers, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.