Thursday, August 23, 2007

KCB back in London?

According to Uncle Moody, KCB will likely restart its banking interests in UK/US. They used to have a representative office in London up mid 1990s which they closed as things went downhill.

The question is
  1. Is there a critical mass in terms of customers for them to open a branch? There are around 64-100,000 Kenyans (including children) in the UK and they would all have to be operating an account to make it worthwhile in terms of the bank being to meet its overhead, staff, regulatory and utility costs. And to justify the £2.5m capital required to be able to start taking deposits.
  2. Could pass they the regulator's heavy hand? UK banks are heavily regulated and in the case of those with overseas banks, this is extended to the parent bank. In effect KCB would be expected to show that its liquid enough to support its entity in the UK. And to pass the test on a host 8 other criterion.
In any case, hope they can make it. Equity tried in 2004, but probably found the FSA's expectations too much.

5 comments:

The Black Mamba said...

I would definitely consider banking with them if they opened a branch overseas.

Kenyanomics said...

Hi yo! Nice lines on BD Africa. Keep it up.

coldtusker said...

Yes, they should look into it for the businesses that trade in/with the UK e.g. exporters.

This would make sense for KCB (not as a deposit-taking institution) but as an office for trade finance.

Dar-es-Salaam said...

KCB could borrow a leaf or two from CRDB Bank of Tanzania which opened a UK branch two years ago.

MainaT said...

Ssem-true
KE-asante. tunaendelea kujenga nchi
CT-how about they start with corresponding business for Kenyans? I don't how much business they'd get from non-indegenous kenyan businesses. Many apparently prefer StanChart.
Dar-millionaire-tx for visiting. I think you maybe able to help me. visited that CRDB, I coudln't see anything about their London office, but I noticed they are doing an IPO shortly. Do you have nay more info?