The bank was founded on June 12, 1942 under the name Unie Bouvereniging.
Shortly afterwards, the company took the name Saambou (Permanente) Bouvereniging.
[2] The bank went into bankruptcy in February 2002 after newspaper articles speculated about it being bankrupt and customers withdrew R1 billion in two days.
At the time it went into receivership, Saambou was the sixth-largest bank in the country.
The JSE Limited stopped trading in its shares that same year, and First National Bank (South Africa) took over some of its mortgage business.