The newly unveiled Cooperative Diaspora bank in Nairobi yesterday. Photo/Enos Teche.

Co-op bank opens financial centre to cater for Kenyans living abroad

Co-operative Bank has opened a centre to serve people living abroad to tap into the growing international remittances market.

The bank said the centre on the ground floor of its Haile Selassie head office, will act as a one-stop shop to cater to financial needs of Kenyans, including diaspora saccos.

Speaking during the launch of the centre, the bank’s director of retail and business banking Maurice Matumo said the surge in international remittances has made the bank to expand capacity to handle the increasing volumes of transactions.

“The new Diaspora Centre therefore comes at a most opportune time, to ensure Kenyans abroad are able to access banking services with minimum hassle, just like home,” Matumo said.

Last year, Kenyans in the diaspora sent home $1.6 billion (Sh163 billion) in remittances.

New Cooperative Bank centre eyes Diaspora cash

Cooperative Bank has launched a 24-hour service centre dedicated to handling banking needs of diaspora customers.

The one-stop shop, named Diaspora Banking Centre, is seeking to boost the amount of money Kenyans living abroad bring into the country. Addressing journalists at Cooperative House where the centre is located, Director of Retail and Business Banking Division Maurice Matumo said the centre will ensure Kenyans living abroad access local banking services with minimum hassle. “As one of the bank’s handling large inflows of diaspora remittances, we were feeling the pressure to expand the capacity to handle surging volumes. The new diaspora centre therefore comes at a most opportune time,” said Mr Matumo. He noted that there had been increased demand from Kenyans living abroad for investment in real estate and stock market and therefore the centre will offer advice on the same. Of the Sh163 billion ($1.6 billion) that Kenyans living abroad sent home last year, Sh45 billion was through Cooperative Bank. Matumo added that the opening of the centre would see the bank extend its services to Savings and Cooperative Societies (Saccos), which are operating from abroad.
Read more at: http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/business/article/2000198299/new-cooperative-bank-centre-eyes-diaspora-cash