CBK suspends Ecobank for breaches in foreign market

Ecobank Kenya has temporarily been barred from the foreign exchange by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) over unsafe trading practices and breach of forex guidelines.

This comes a day after the apex bank issued a regulatory action against the lender.

According to CBK, the lender had concluded a forex transaction contrary to the Prudential Guidelines on Foreign Exchange Exposure Limits.

“After a thorough investigation on Ecobank it is evident the bank did not have enough robust risk controls to prevent the breaches on its foreign exchange exposure limits,” said CBK in a statement.

Ecobank is now expected to reverse the amount of the additional exposure that was created as an outcome of the regulatory breach.

The bank (Ecobank) is still not allowed to do forex trade and will also not be allowed to transact in their interbank foreign exchange market for a week until April 4,2022.

However, CBK is allowing it to conclude all committed transactions as of March 28,2022.