The Standard Chartered Bank has started closing bank accounts of small businesses that have less than Sh. 10 million monthly cash inflow.

The bank has been shutting the accounts down regardless of how low a customer had been banking with the lender.

A report that appeared in a local newspaper quoted one of the affected account holders saying that their account was shut down even though they had been faithfully banking with Stanchart for fifteen years.

“I had banked with the bank for more than 15 years where I operated the business and my personal accounts but this year, I was told that the bank would close it since the cash flows were below its limit,” the affected client was quoted.

Another business person was quoted saying that their account has been having an average of about Sh. 600,000 every month. This was however not good enough for Stanchart and their account was declared as inactive.

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Stanchart’s Head of Consumer, Private and Business Banking in Kenya and East Africa, Edith Chumba, claimed that the accounts were beind closed based on their utilization.

“A number of the affected accounts are inactive which causes a risk to our clients and the bank,” said Chumba.

“Before any decision is made, we provide three months of active client engagement and the clients are given a 91-day window to make a decision on the way forward, such as activating their accounts to continue with the relationship.”