Mr. Shylock, stop cherry picking clients
BY MWINGI TIMES EDITORIAL
Bankers lobby Kenya
Bankers Association want the State to repeal and replace the 14% interest rate
capping law. Sad.
A common joke says that
only Kenyan banks do not have washrooms for their clients. Such is the mean
mien of bankers that they even string their pens to their desks doubting the clients’
signature trustworthiness yet they want us to entrust them with our money.
What the banks want is
to continue to enjoy super-normal profits as Kenyan underclass collapse under
the weight of astronomical interest rates of yesterday.
They have released an
obviously skewed research purporting to show that the country is credit starved
because of the interest rate capping law. Who believes that?
As a consequence, even
the most sterling creditworthy clients I spoke to report being cherry picked by
the bankers. Suddenly they cannot trust us any longer. They have resorted to
lending to the government since it is safer. They are in effect crowding out
the private sector by opening their vaults to government papers. Never mind the
money they are now lending to the government is harvested from the wananchi
they do not feel any moral obligation to lend to.
As a soft target, bank
employees have been laid off in their thousands under the pretext of the economy
is doing badly.
The reality is that the
economy is working but it isn’t working for everyone. It is working for those
with access. Those in government and those in big money trade.
Mr. Shylock, digital
banking is the way to go. Long bank hall queues and bureaucracy will only lead
you to many more profit warnings in the future.
MWINGI TIMES for timely and authoritative news.
No comments
Post a Comment