Three commercial banks listed at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) are seeking to raise capital from the market totaling about KES 7 billion. Standard Chartered, Diamond Trust and NIC Banks are seeking to raise KES 3.2 billion, KES 1.81 billion and KES 2.07 billion respectively through listed bonds at the NSE.

Standard Chartered Bank's rights issue was approved in May by the shareholders and the bank has already picked an advisory team to oversee the process of raising KES 3.2 billion in new capital. The team will prepare documents needed for approval of the transaction by regulators including the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) and the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE).

This follows Consolidated Bank’s KES 4 billion bond which got CMA approval for issue and listing in June. Consolidated bank's seven year fixed-rate bond which is tradable in denominations of KES 100,000 with an annual interest rate of 13.25% began trading at the NSE yesterday. The bond closed its first day with a subscription rate of 84% that raised KES 1.7 billion according to an official statement on the listing.