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Kenya president confident about steps to protect depositors
People read a notice from the Central Bank of Kenya taped to the closed entrance of a Chase Bank branch, after the bank was put under receivership, in Nairobi, Kenya, April 8, 2016. PHOTO BY REUTERS/Siegfried Modola
09/04/2016
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said he supported central bank Governor Patrick Njoroge's actions to protect depositors' money, a few days after Chase Bank Kenya was put under receivership.
Mid-sized Chase Bank was the third lender to be taken over by the central bank in nine months, fuelling worries over the health of the sector, whose gross non-performing loans rose sharply in volume last year.
"What we have is a situation where the governor, and I support him, is just saying we must strengthen and remove weaknesses in our banking system," Kenyatta's office quoted him in a statement on Saturday.
"I personally believe the Governor is doing what is in the best interest of the overall banking sector and what is important to me is to that ensure all our depositors especially the small depositors remain and stay protected," he said.
Kenyatta said the banking and financial sectors in east Africa's largest economy were strong even in light of Chase Bank's receivership.
"Our bankers must begin to understand that they must follow the law. It is clear we cannot continue to operate in a burden but we have a number of banks like this one that have been falling by the wayside," he said.
Njoroge said authorities would deal firmly with bankers who put depositors' money at risk while the police issued arrest warrants for six executives of National Bank and two from Chase Bank.
Last week, the chief executive of National Bank, Munir Ahmed and five other senior officials were put on compulsory leave pending an internal audit, as loan loss provisions pushed the lender into a loss.
(Reporting by George Obulutsa; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
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