Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Kutwa: Tuesday: Pick out a positive story

Bank Round-up
- Co-op Bank extends its banking hours from the now less-traditional 9 to 3 to 9 a.m. to 4. p.m. daily and up to noon on Saturdays.

- bold Equity Bank announced plans last week to open new branches in Kisumu, but that was before a new outbreak of violence over the weekend and the fatal shooting of an opposition MP this morning.

- The Business Daily reports that West African giant Ecobank, plans to take over a majority stake in limping mortgage bank EABS whose recent growth had lagged most of its peers

- NIC Bank to convert this cashless ATM points into full branches and expand its network.

capital flight: A leading multi-national bank is considering moving an African operations department out of Nairobi, and to another country. The amount of capital flight (money leaving the country) is also at an alarming high.

Other sectors
- Valentine’s day massacre?; What does Naivasha flare up mean for some flower farms who Valentine's Day (Feb 14) shipment/sales can account for up to ½ their turnover in a year ?
- Nairumor that a blue chip CEO and turnaround specialist will resign next month in search of (foreign) greener pastures
- The Harvard Business School’s Africa Business Conference is on February 15-17, 2008 in Boston MA. Details from YAP
- Some troubling signs and even more today.
- Another regional airline upstart is Executive Turbine, flying 4X weekly to Kisumu for Kshs. 3,540 ($70). Regional airlines should be added to the earlier post on election winners.

Trivia
- Will ‘President Obama’ need Equity Bank? - because 46% of African American household’s don’t have bank accounts - he can tap Equity Bank’s revolutionary model to bring banking to the unbanked.

- wish I was in France: It’s better to be a rogue trader facing charges for misplacing $7 billion. But it’s also a reminder that financial shenanigans are still rarely punished and prosecuted in Kenya. E.g. Francis Thuo. (and maybe Mr. Kerviel would rather have worked for a Kenyan bank instead)

6 comments:

MainaT said...

In thought it was interesting that a Nigerian bank would come in now. They obviuosly know from back home that eventually peep have to put this foolishness down and do some real economic generating activitie. 2ndly, they'll be able to buy into this bank on the cheap.

Only Unga & NBK have nore bids placed than sale orders today. Not good at all.

The Frenchmen actually placed around $60bn, he made a $1bn for SocGen in unreleased gains as at end of Dec but obiviously it all went horribly wrong this last few days. If there is justice, he'll only lose his job. There is no way SocGen would have missed his trades...

Anonymous said...
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E-Nyce said...

"According to data gathered by the South Carolina Council on Economic Education, 46 percent of African-American households don't have checking or savings accounts."
-- Umm, yeah, sure.

Without a name or a reference, shouldn't the capital flight bank be listed under 'Nairumour'?

Speaking of, can we get a name to the "blue chip CEO and turnaround specialist"?

Anonymous said...

"he can tap Equity Bank’s revolutionary model to bring banking to the unbanked". There is more to it than just an idea. Actually the bank that helped out Grameen Bank is right in Obama's backyard. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ShoreBank.
There are several African-American banks that could implement it. There is more to the lack of bank accounts than access, as in the Kenya situation. I have a hypothesis, but will leave that for others, to explore.

Great train of thought.

bankelele said...

MainaT: It's a nice time. EABS is big but has had no growth for 2 years, so there are some opportunities there
- NSE yesterday, was something, hopefuly today will have some upturns
- If a trader takes on unauthorised exposure, he should be fired, even if he makes money!

E-Nyce: The roll out and check cashing habits of many african americans leaves no need for bank accounts.
- as for nairumors, the bank and the CEO have to remain nameless as they are NSE-listed, if they pan out i will confirm names

E-Nyce said...

Sorry banks, I can definitely speak with more authority on the banking habits of African Americans, and not just because I'm your 'Man in Havana', the man on-the-ground, so to speak.

26%? Ok.
36%? Emm, iffy but maybe.
46%? No way.

It's more likely that that AA's fluctuate between banks, and in and out of owning accounts, and into/out of alternative methods of banking, much more than the general pop. For this behavior, yes 46% would sound right.

Let's try another angle "What percentage of African-American households have never had a checking or savings account?"

I don't have competing statistics -- and until I seen some reputable agency vet the "South Carolina Council on Economic Education" results, I'm staying critical and skeptical. I don't just want to see the numbers, I want to know how they were derived.

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