ABC Bank Group Managing Director, Shamaz Savani with EAX Board Chair, Dr. Jendayi Frazer.
ABC Bank Group’s profit declined from KSh 67.5 Million in the first nine months of 2018 to KSh 43.6 Million at the end of the third quarter of this year as fears that the bank may be facing liquidity issues are now confirmed.
We also reported that the African Banking Corporation (ABC) Limited has in the last couple of months been undergoing CBK audits, stress checks and risk tests, putting the institution to question over its future survival.
Sources at the Central Bank had confided to the editor of this site that the bank has “questionable” practices like Imperial Bank and to a small degree, the activities of the two financial institutions resemble. At the centre of the CBK audits and tests were the bank’s liquidity position and it’s capital adequacy.
In May this year, we also revealed that the African Banking Corporation (ABC) could be blacklisted over concerns that the bank could be a conduit for criminal activities.
A confidential exchange on August 4, between the Central Bank of Kenya and the United States Government with the subject: Bank Fraud & Money Laundering in the East African names ABC as a Kenyan bank that should be investigated for money laundering.
It also states that ABC is used by a “notorious” gun runner, Victor Butt, to launder money as well as buy small arms from the unstable countries like Somalia, South Sudan and Pakistan. Pakistan, sources at the Banking Fraud Unit (BFU) intimate, the money came through ABC bank.
A confidential letter from the Scotland Yard to Central Bank and copied to the Banking Fraud Unit in January also urges BFU to investigate the “strong appetite” ABC bank has for the housing sector, particularly in Nairobi and the Kenyan coast, Mombasa.