Best banks in Kenya 2018: Co-operative Bank has been named as the second best bank in Kenya. This follows the release of the Central bank of Kenya (CBK) 2017 Annual bank Supervision report.
the report shows that KCB remained at the top with a market share index of 14.4 per cent. It was followed by Co-op bank with a score of 9.93 per cent hile Equity bank took the third position with a score of 9.85 per cent.
In the previous rankings, Co-op bank had come in at position three.
Other banks in the rank were Standard Chartered Bank which came in at number four with a score of 7.11 per cent, Diamond Trust Bank with a score of 6.72 per cent and Barclays with a score of 6.57 per cent.
Coming in at number seven was Commercial bank of Africa with a score of 6.05 per cent while Stanbic came in at position eight with a score of 5.62 per cent. The market share Index is calculated by taking into account bank results across five key performance indicators namely total net assets, total deposits, total shareholders’ funds, total deposit accounts and total loan accounts.
It was not as yet apparent whether the loss of market share by Barclays has any connection with possible market jitters surrounding the change in ownership and rebranding currently underway.
On the overall, the re-jigging of the pecking order essentially reflects the level of agility and resilience of respective banks in Kenya’s rather turbulent operating environment that banks had to contend with in the last two years.
This includes the interest rate capping that dramatically cut operating margins and the extended electioneering period that was compounded with the unprecedented cancellation and a repeat of a presidential election caused much anxiety to the detriment of the economy.
The introduction of more stringent accounting guidelines under the IFRS 9 rules has intensified pressure on bank performance, not to mention the proposed higher taxation on bank profits and transactions.
