Charterhouse revealed
Fresh off the kroll reports, Wikileaks moves on to another Kenyan financial saga - uncovering secrets of charterhouse bank .
The bank was placed under statutory management in 2006 after a long battle with the central bank governor, finance minister, amid allegations of money laundering and tax evasion that almost brought down Nakumatt supermarket who banked with them and hosted several Charterhouse branches.
Euro needs more marketing
The US Dollar keeps dipping lower, not just against the shilling, but is all over recording lows against the Euro and now achieveing parity with the Canadian dollar (no more cheap buys from Canada).
I feel bad when I travel to another country with my Dollars and they don't go as far as tehy used to, or as if I had carried Euros instead.
While the dollar is laid low, there is no other currency stepping up to grab its space. The pound is a colonial relic and the yen is too far & exotic.
The Euro needs to step up and lobby to become the currency of choice for hotels, shops, forex bureaus, Kenya airways, Somali & Sudanese businessmen, companies and most important the Kenya government
Family Bank gets cheques
After applying for a waiver (and getting it), Family Bank finally is now fully fledged with cheque books for customers and access to the Central Bank clearing house. This meshes will with their growth plans – as a recent report found they had the highest new account growth among all banks last year.
IPO savings loan
From Transnational Bank, comes the Fanikisha enabling people to save money and buy IPO shares on the NSE – which TNBL will finance up to 2 ½ times what you have saved. The account is aimed at Kenyans abroad – but my question is with the fractional IPO applications yielded (1/4 or 1/3 of shares paid for) what gain is there in taking a loan for an IPO?
Story con or cover up?
KTN had a story this week about the Tesco supermarkets (local chain – not UK-related) who just ended their Uchumi franchise partnership. KTN said they had seen documents showing that Tesco was insolvent with negative share capital, numerous bounced cheques, rent arrears of many months at its stores, and suppliers reclaiming their merchandise. The story ended there with not follow up in the Standard (KTN sister paper) or any other newspaper. So was it hushed up, or was it a case of more mud slinging in the supermarket wars?
