NBS Bank plc has signed up about 320 families to its new Family Banking Service since the product went live on January 18, and on the same Mzuzu stage where it shared that figure, the lender unveiled a K240 million (about US$140,000) partnership with Sunbird Tourism plc to redevelop a golf course. The dual announcement bundles a financial inclusion pitch with a lifestyle perk, and it tells you where one of Malawi’s busiest banks now thinks the next deposit will come from: the household, not the headline corporate account.
Read separately, the two items look minor. Read together, they fit a pattern playing out across Malawi’s listed banks, which booked record profits in 2025 and are now spending some of that windfall on segment products and customer perks to lock in low-cost deposits, in a country where most adults still do not hold a bank account at all.
Two Launches, One Deposit Strategy in Mzuzu
The Family Banking Service is built to let members of one household manage money together under a single banking relationship while picking up a range of account benefits. NBS Bank Chief Operating Officer Shadrick Chikusilo told the Mzuzu gathering that early uptake had beaten expectations.
The response has been impressive. Since the launch of the Family Banking Service in January, around 320 families have already opened accounts under the initiative. This demonstrates that Malawians are embracing innovative banking solutions that promote financial inclusion and family financial management.
That was Chikusilo, speaking as the bank’s chief operating officer at the Mzuzu launch. He added that the bank expects enrolment to climb once it rolls out infinite cards, a premium offering pitched at clients who travel or transact internationally and want access to banking platforms across borders. You can see the shape of the bet in NBS Bank’s range of banking products and services: a mass-market family account on one side, a premium card on the other, aimed at capturing both ends of the household.
The golf piece sat alongside it. The K240 million tie-up with Sunbird Tourism, the hospitality group, is meant to revamp the Mzuzu Golf Course and hand selected bank clients discounts on Sunbird products and stays. One event, two very different products, one underlying goal.
Why a Record-Profit Year Pushed NBS Toward Family Accounts
NBS Bank is spending from a position of strength. The lender posted a profit after tax of K150.42 billion for the year ended December 31, 2025, more than double the K72.99 billion it made a year earlier. Total assets rose 29 percent to K1.54 trillion, and customer deposits grew 43 percent to K1.04 trillion, the cheap funding that lets a bank lend at a profit.
It was not alone. Five commercial banks listed on the Malawi Stock Exchange posted a combined K724.5 billion in net profit for 2025, a haul analysts have tied to high interest rates and heavy lending to the government rather than to a surge in everyday retail banking. That engine is lucrative, but it is also exposed: when rates ease or the state borrows less, the banks that hold the most sticky retail deposits keep the best margins.
Here is how the largest listed lenders compared on the bottom line, drawn from results filed alongside data on each bank’s Malawi Stock Exchange listing:
| Bank | 2025 profit after tax | Change vs 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| National Bank of Malawi | K197.97 billion | +95% |
| NBS Bank | K150.42 billion | +106% |
| FDH Bank | K147.8 billion | +100% |
| Standard Bank Malawi | K122 billion | +41% |
With profits clustered that tightly, the differentiator stops being who can lend to the Treasury and becomes who can hold onto the customer. A family account that ropes in a spouse, children and a premium card is a deposit base that does not walk out the door easily.
The 75% Still Outside a Bank Branch
The catch is the market itself. Only about 25 percent of Malawian adults hold a formal bank account, which means roughly three in four are still outside the branch network the banks are competing over. Most of the country lives in rural districts that formal lenders have historically skipped.
Mobile money has filled much of that gap. Services such as TNM Mpamba and Airtel Money reach far more people than the banks do, and they have become the default way many households send and store cash. For a bank, the family account is partly an attempt to pull some of that activity back into a formal relationship.
- 25% of adults hold a formal bank account, per the World Bank’s Global Findex tracking of Malawi’s financial inclusion data.
- 83% of the population lives in rural areas that remain underserved by branch banking.
- 95% formal-access target by 2028 under the government’s National Strategy for Financial Inclusion III, the policy plan known as NFIS III.
That gap between a quarter banked today and a 95 percent target is the prize. A household product that brings in several account holders at once is a faster route to those numbers than signing customers one at a time.
Lifestyle Perks Are the New Battleground for Deposits
None of this is unique to Mzuzu. Across the continent, banks have been wrapping core accounts in lifestyle benefits to win and keep customers, and the family-plus-perks model NBS Bank is testing has well-worn templates further south.
What Bundling Buys the Bank
Standard Bank’s Prestige account in South Africa lets a spouse join at half the monthly fee, throws in credit cards for family use, and gives children under 16 free accounts with discounts on food, fashion and entertainment. FNB’s Private Clients card stacks travel insurance, airport lounge access and rewards onto a high-income current account. The logic is consistent everywhere it shows up.
- A multi-member account raises the cost and hassle of switching banks, so deposits stay put.
- Lifestyle discounts get customers using the bank for everyday spending, which feeds fee income.
- Premium cards capture the affluent end of the household, the segment most likely to travel and transact in foreign currency.
Consultancy McKinsey, in its snapshot of African banking strategy, frames the shift as banks leaning on value-based bundles to deepen engagement and protect their economics, rather than chasing pure account numbers.
Where Malawi Differs
The Malawian version carries an extra job. With only a quarter of adults banked, a family account is both a retention tool for existing customers and an inclusion play for new ones. That double duty is why NBS Bank can pitch the same product as embracing innovation and promoting financial inclusion in the same breath. Whether 320 sign-ups in four months becomes a meaningful share of an underbanked market is the open question, and the infinite-card rollout is the bank’s next test of it.
What the Golf Deal Buys Sunbird and NBS
The party most easily overlooked in the announcement is Sunbird Tourism, the listed hospitality group that owns hotels and resorts across the country. Its chief executive, Samson Mwale, said the K240 million arrangement would help revive the Mzuzu Golf Course and improve the experience for players and visitors in the Northern Region.
For Sunbird, the deal is a capital boost for a facility that draws golf tourism and hotel traffic. For the bank, the course is a touchpoint with exactly the affluent, internationally minded clients its premium cards are built for. Golf days, discounts and a refreshed venue are cheaper than a branch and stickier than an interest rate, and they put the brand in front of the customers most worth keeping.
It is a modest sum against a bank that cleared more than K150 billion in annual profit, which is the point. The spending is small, targeted and aimed at relationships rather than transactions.
If the family accounts and the perks translate into deposits that hold when interest rates eventually soften, NBS Bank will have used a fat profit year to buy durable funding on the cheap. If enrolment stalls near its current few hundred households, the golf course and the infinite cards will read as branding, and the deposit race will be decided the old way, on price.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Do I Open an NBS Bank Family Banking Account?
The Family Banking Service has been available since January 18, 2026, and is designed for members of one household to bank together under a single relationship through NBS Bank branches. The bank says it expects sign-ups to rise as it introduces its infinite cards, so enrolment terms may broaden over time.
What Is the NBS Bank Infinite Card?
It is a premium card the bank is rolling out for clients who travel frequently or carry out international transactions, giving them access to banking platforms and services across the globe. NBS Bank presents it as part of the family-banking push to capture higher-value customers within a household.
What Does the K240 Million Sunbird Partnership Cover?
The partnership with Sunbird Tourism is aimed at redeveloping the Mzuzu Golf Course and supporting golf tourism in the Northern Region. Selected NBS Bank clients also receive discounts on Sunbird products and services as part of the arrangement.
How Many Families Have Joined So Far?
About 320 families had opened accounts under the service between its January launch and the late-May announcement in Mzuzu, a figure the bank describes as a strong early signal rather than a final tally.
