KCB and Triton

KCB has been rather silent on the Triton matter even as the company’s share price took a mini hit and its profitability outlook was downgraded in some circles.

The last release from their website was in reference to the launch of a Sustainability Report of the group. It’s not online yet, though it will be, an interesting report with lots of rarely disclosed facts on the bank, mostly their corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities, and will be repeated every two years.

in the report
KCB Brand - has a 75% corporate reputation, is the most popular financial brand, and the 4th most popular in Kenya (after Safaricom, Kenya airways and Coca-Cola) according to the Steadman Group.

Silence on Triton can be explained by KCB’s customer privacy guidelines - the bank assures customers of privacy though stringent procedures and guidelines and undertake responsibility for any breach of confidentiality that may arise

Impact of Triton policy on responsible lending requires that the KCB audit committee meets twice a month, credit committee also twice a month to discuss risk profile of bank, and the risk management committee meet quarterly or when required

Corruption & Triton: KCB has zero tolerance to corruption, has 110 ethics champions trained to combat corruption. Also in 2007 KCB exited from transparency international (TI) bribery index, it prohibit political contributions (direct or indirect) from bank funds, and is founder member of Ethical Business Group Kenya?. Report states that 2 staff were dismissed and 9 terminated.

Labour matters
- employees got an average of 39 hours of training a year
- Base salary is equal regardless of gender: for subordinates (male is Kshs. 36,057, female is Kshs. 33,984) clerical (m 58,434 f 63,600), section heads (m 85,770, f 87,684) managers (m 192,090, f 161,138)
- staff include managers (630 males to 287 females), most of whom are aged 30 – 50 years (492 m, 212 f)

Environmental
– all loan projects are required to obtain environmental (NEMA) certification
– KCB will strive to reduce water consumption (estimated at 191,000 cubic meters p.a) reduce energy consumption (5.782 million kwh, consume 312,000 litres of diesel which emitted 248,000 and 838 tons of carbon dioxide respectively)
– KCB will strive to recycle paper, scan documents – encourage customers to uptake e-services (use less paper), participate in tree planting and reforestation,

Empowerment of Kenyans
- loan base rate of 12%
- KCB has 71,000 e-customers (receive information by electronic means - which menas less paper consumed)
- Create wealth nationwide - branches can procure 33% of product in local areas, and KCB has 9 full branches in sparely populate areas
- provide agricultural loans (mavuno for tea farmers and brookside for dairy operators)
- in education sector, partner with AIESEC and the palmhouse foundation

Triton ends well? for KCB: The Triton matter may be a forgone conclusion if the Daily Nation article about an out of court settlement between Government of Kenya and its financiers (KCB, Fortis, Ecobank, Equatorial banks) is true - and that the government (i.e. taxpayers) may pay the financiers off to not go to court over their funds lost with Trition and teh Kenya Pipleince Corporation (KPC). The silence will mean that unsavory happenings at KPC will (maybe) not be exposed further, clearing the way (hopefully) for an IPO of the troubled company.