Kenyan shilling edges down due to demand, shares sag

Kenya's shilling weakened on Tuesday due to demand for dollars, particularly by energy importers, and traders.  At the 1300 GMT close of trade, leading commercial banks posted the shilling at 89.15/25 to the dollar, down from Monday's close of 88.80/90.

In the stock market, the NSE-20 share index lost 0.54 percent to close at 5,377.29 points, still within its six-year high hit on Friday, as some investors took profits. At the debt market, bonds worth 1.0 billion shillings were traded, down from a volume of 1.5 billion shillings the previous day [...]

CMA approves NIC Bank Rights Issue

The Capital Markets Authority (CMA) has approved a rights issue for NIC Bank Limited. The approval will allow the bank to raise funds from the capital markets through a rights issue for the third time in seven years.

This approval will allow the bank to issue and list an additional 42,663,040 ordinary shares at a rights issue price to be announced by the Company to shareholders of ordinary shares of NIC Bank Limited on the register of its members at the close business on October 2, 2014. [...]

Central Bank of Kenya Amendment Bill targets retailers’ savings to fund State coffers

It will soon be possible for retail investors to participate in the Government debt market, using smaller denominations in bids that can be submitted through electronic means. This is if parliament passes into law amendments to the law to allow smaller players into the Treasury bond and bill market. [...]

M-Pesa To Double Transaction Capacity By 2015

M-Pesa, is expected to double in early 2015, says the company’s chief executive officer (CEO) Bob Collymore. Part of the planned upgrade — which has been three years in the making — includes the relocation of M-Pesa servers from Europe to Kenya. [...]

Barclays fined Sh6b for exposing client to risk

UK bank, Barclays , was fined 38 million pounds (Sh5.5 billion) for exposing customers to unnecessary risks by failing to ensure client assets were properly safeguarded and adequate records kept. Imposing its highest fine for client asset breaches, the regulator said there were “significant weaknesses” in Barclays ’ systems and controls between November 2007 and January 2012 that put 16.5 billion pounds of client’s assets at risk. [...]