Visa Introduces Mobile-Money Product to Rival Safaricom’s M-Pesa

Visa Introduces Mobile-Money Product to Rival Safaricom’s M-Pesa

Johannesburg, Capital Markets in Africa: Visa Inc., the world’s largest payments network, introduced a mobile-phone application to enable cashless transactions in Kenya, where the majority of wireless payments are being done through the nation’s biggest telecommunications company, Safaricom Limited. The mVisa app will initially facilitate transactions for people with accounts in four banks, including KCB Group Ltd. and Co-operative Bank of Kenya Ltd., according to Visa Emerging Markets Senior Vice President Uttam Nayak. The company estimates 84 million of Africa’s mobile-phone…

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Kenyan Treasury Secretary Says Banks Making Too Much

Kenyan Treasury Secretary Says Banks Making Too Much

NAIROBI, Capital Markets in Africa: Kenyan banks have been “expropriating too much profit” from the interest rates they charge on loans and have room to lower borrowing costs, Treasury Secretary Henry Rotich said. Lawmakers in East Africa’s biggest economy approved a bill last month that will limit the amount of interest banks can charge on loans to four percentage points above the central bank’s benchmark rate. The proposal is awaiting President Uhuru Kenyatta’s signature before it becomes law….

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Time Kenyan Banks Made ‘Down Payment’ on Rates, Njoroge Says

Time Kenyan Banks Made ‘Down Payment’ on Rates, Njoroge Says

NAIROBI, Kenya, Capital Markets in Africa: Kenyan banks need to lower their “remarkably high” interest rates and make a “credible down payment” to borrowers, central bank Governor Patrick Njoroge said. While a proposed law limiting how much lenders can charge for loans is misguided, banks still need to do more to cut their rates so the benefits of a well-functioning financial system reaches customers, he said in a statement published on the central bank’s website. Lawmakers in…

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Kenya Bank Profits Drop First Time in 16 Years on Costs

Kenya Bank Profits Drop First Time in 16 Years on Costs

NAIROBI, Kenya, Capital Markets in Africa: Kenya’s banking industry last year recorded the first decline in profit since 1999 as costs outpaced income in the wake of two failures and more onerous regulations. Pretax profit across the sector declined 5 percent to 134 billion shillings ($1.3 billion) in the 12 months through December, according to the central bank’s Bank Supervision Report, released in the capital, Nairobi, on Tuesday. That came as a 16 percent increase in…

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Nedbank Heads for Eight-Month High on Surprise Profit Increase

Nedbank Heads for Eight-Month High on Surprise Profit Increase

Johannesburg, Capital Markets in Africa: Nedbank Group Ltd., the South African lender controlled by Old Mutual Plc, reached the highest level in eight months after first-half profit rose, beating analyst estimates that had predicted a decline. The shares jumped as much as 8.3 percent on Monday before paring gains, leading returns on the seven-member FTSE/JSE Africa Banks Index. First-half earnings per share excluding one-time items climbed to 11.19 rand from 11.01 rand a year earlier as bad-loan impairments improved….

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Pound Slumps as Egyptian Banks ‘Scrape Barrel’ Over FX Shortage

Pound Slumps as Egyptian Banks ‘Scrape Barrel’ Over FX Shortage

CARIO, Egypt, Capital Markets in Africa: The Egyptian pound extended a record low on the black market, as tighter restrictions on the use of local debit and credit cards overseas and comments by the central bank governor stoked speculation of a devaluation. The pound fell to 12.99 per dollar on Tuesday from 12.02 last week, according to the average quote of five currency traders in Cairo and Alexandria. That’s the lowest since Bloomberg started tracking black…

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Kenyan Expresses Interest in Buying Troubled Congo Lender

Kenyan Expresses Interest in Buying Troubled Congo Lender

NAIROBI, Kenya, Capital Markets in Africa: Commercial Bank of Africa Limited, Kenya’s largest closely held lender, expressed an interest in buying struggling Democratic Republic Congo lender Banque Internationale Pour l’Afrique au Congo. Commercial Bank of Africa sent a letter that was signed by the Nairobi-based company’s Group Managing Director Isaac Awuondo and dated June 30 to Congo’s central bank saying it was interested in expanding its footprint into the country by investing in the recapitalization of BIAC, according to a…

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