CBK faces fresh test as Kenyan banks lose Ksh1.9B to fraud
Kenya’s banking sector faces growing pressure to strengthen its financial resilience as new Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) figures show lenders lost Ksh1.9 billion to fraud in 2025, even as the regulator pushes banks to raise capital reserves. Rising losses, coupled with disagreements between CBK and the National Treasury over the deadline for banks to […]
The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has reported that Kenya's banks lost Ksh1.9 billion to fraud in 2025, marking a 19.4 percent increase from the previous year. The regulator attributed the rising losses to the growing prevalence of cyber fraud, despite a decline in reported card fraud cases. Card fraud alone accounted for Ksh645.19 million in losses in 2025, a sharp increase from Ksh263.28 million in 2024.
Mobile banking fraud losses also rose to Ksh634.25 million, while internet scam losses amounted to Ksh86.52 million. Internet scam losses, however, were down from Ksh6.07 million in 2024. The regulator warned that such losses could impact banks' profitability and their ability to build capital reserves. The issue comes as the Treasury and CBK debate the implementation of a Ksh10 billion minimum capital requirement for commercial banks, with the treasury extending the deadline to December 2032.
The World Bank's November 2026 Kenya Economic Update also highlighted governance weaknesses, such as corruption, which increase annual fiscal deficits by about two percentage points of GDP.
Written by urgent.news from People Daily Kenya's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
