NAIROBI, Kenya, May 22 – The Central Bank of Kenya has approved the acquisition of Imperial Bank assets’ valued at Sh3.2 billion, and assumption of liabilities of the same value by Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB).
The approval, therefore, means that starting June 2, 2020, Imperial Bank depositors with enough collateral will be paid a total of Sh3.2 billion over a period of four years.
Subsequently, the depositors will have cumulatively recovered 37.3 percent of the deposits since 2015 when payments were commenced.
The approval comes a month after KCB reduced the portion of the loan book it intends to take over from the collapsed Imperial Bank to Ksh3.5 billion.
Initially, KCB had identified Sh10 billion loans for takeover before cutting the target to Sh5 billion and later to Sh3.5 billion,.
Imperial Bank went under receivership in October 2015 and CBK placed it under the management and control of the KDIC due to inappropriate banking practices.
In December 2018, Central Bank appointed KCB as an agent of Kenya Deposit Insurance Corporation (KDIC)—the Imperial Bank receiver-manager—to disburse the funds to the depositors.
