From reading a 1968 book Who Controls Industry in Kenya – a report of a working party comes some history of the Kenyan banking sector. It mentions that in 1968;
– Kenya had 10 banks and all but 3 banks were foreign bank off-shoots.
– They had given loans of loans of £70m, deposits of £83m – a book ratio of 83%, compared to US or UK which had ratios of between 33% to 50%
– Depositors received 3-4% interest on deposits and paid interest of 7-8% on loans [today deposit rates are about the same but loan borrowers pay 12 – 25%]
There were two tiers of banks then;
The Big 3 Banks which 3 held 80% of deposits and 85% of bank assets amounting to K£111 million in 1966 were
– Barclays Bank: Had assets of UK£1.4 billion and had 83 branches, and Kenyan directors included Michael Blundell, S. Waruhiu and J. Opembe. Today it has 111 branches
– Nation & Grindlays (now KCB): Had assets of UK £401 million and after-tax profit of £1.2 million. It had 50 branches, and 16 directors who were all British. Today KCB has 165 outlets in Kenya
_ Standard Bank (now Standard Chartered): With assets of UK £892 million and a net profit of £3.1 million. It had 41 offices, 22 directors all British.
Next 7 Banks
– Bank of Baroda
– Ottoman Bank
– Bank of India
– African Banking Corporation (subsidiary of Standard Bank)
– Commercial Bank of Africa
– Algemene bank (General Bank of Netherlands)
– Habib bank
Other institutions
– Cooperative Bank of Kenya (established in 1967)
– National Bank of Kenya (established in 1968)
Finance houses
– Big 3 (licensed as banks)
– National industrial credit (then 40% owned by Standard Bank, now NIC)
– United Dominions Corporation
– Credit finance company (now CFC Stanbic)
Others registered as ordinary companies:
– Transaction Finance Corporation (subsidiary of Cooper Motor Corporation CMC)
– Industrial promotion services (Now IPS, was est. in 1963 by the Aga Khan)
– Africindo Industrial Development (powerful Asian industrialists seeking credit facilities for exports to India with training for Kenyans there)
Development corporations
The big three commercial banks also owned development corporations to undertake longer-term investments than normal banks accepted; these were Barclays Overseas Development [assets of UK£9m and 88 projects in East Africa], National & Grindlays Finance and Development [B£3m] and Standard Bank Development Corporation.
Building societies
As at 1964, they had loaned UK£3m more than they had in deposits; this was after sudden withdrawal in 1959 of £4m savings by European and Asian depositors.
– Savings & Loan Society
– East African Building Society
– First Permanent (East Africa)
– Kenya building society (subsidiary of Commonwealth Development Corporation CDC)
– Housing Finance Company of Kenya (now Housing Finance)
