Real-time bank transfers of more than Sh1 million recovered from
a 26-month low to touch a new monthly record in July as authorities
started easing Covid-19 trade and travel restrictions.
Transactions
cleared and settled through the Kenya Electronic Payments and
Settlement System and Real Time Gross Payment System (KEPSS/RTGS)
amounted to Sh3.32 trillion in July, the month when businesses started
reporting increased activity, according to latest statistics.
This
followed relaxation of global coronavirus containment measures which
had curtailed movement into and out of Nairobi and Mombasa as well as
domestic flights, except for goods and essential services providers
since mid-March.
Instructions by businesses and
high-net worth individuals to banks to transfer cash in their accounts
increased 13.52 percent to 454,281 transactions in July compared with a
month earlier — the highest volume in a year.
As a
result, cash transacted went up 28.5 percent month-on-month from Sh2.59
trillion in June, signalling a recovery from a 26-month low of Sh2.25
trillion in May, Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) data shows.
Rising transactions in banking halls by businesses and wealthy
households was also reflected in cheque payments which rose for the
second month in a row after plunging to a decade-low in April and May.
The
value of cheques approved at the Automated Clearing House, run by the
Kenya Bankers Association (KBA), rose to Sh188.53 billion in July from
Sh181.41 billion a month earlier.
RTGS and cheque payments require clients to visit banking halls to fill and sign off forms.
KBA chief executive Habil Olaka had told the Business Daily in
an earlier interview that such visits had declined in early months of
Covid-induced partial trade and travel restrictions on fear of
contracting the contagious virus amid depressed sales.
The
Stanbic Bank Kenya’s Purchasing Managers Index — a monthly measure of
private sector activity — showed private sector activity rose for the
first time this year in July, hitting the highest levels since June
2019.
The Central Bank of Kenya requires banks to
strictly process and settle payments from Sh1 million through the
real-time RTGS/ KEPSS system where cash reflects within four hours of
getting instructions.
The real-time
transaction-by-transaction payments enables the CBK to scrutinise and
flag suspicious or unusual transaction that may be inked to money
laundering or financing of terrorism.
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