Enterprise

Meta ex-bankers help customers navigate financial waters

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Mr Bernard Omenda, chief executive of Meta Capital. Photo | Courtesy

A trio of ex-investment and debt market bankers which ventured into advisory game with the launch of Meta Capital last year to help customers navigate the banking market is now seeing results.

The three managing principles Mr Bernard Omenda, former head of Treasury at Spire Bank, Jeremiah Kendagor who headed the KCB trading desk, and Silas Obegi who boasts a wealth of experience in online trading say customers now need a one stop shop to make sense of Kenya's fast expanding financial sector.

The group which is offering advisory services on competitive exchange rates, risk management while helping banks mobilise deposits says they have mobilised deposits worth Sh500 million for two banks in the first half of the year and arranged numerous foreign exchange purchases for clients.

"Through this facility we help the banks increase their foreign exchange volumes while helping our clients achieve the best possible exchange rates,” says Mr Bernard Omenda, the chief executive of Meta Capital from their Kimathi street office.

The chairman of the organization Mr Jeremiah Kendagol says the firm offers solutions through a consultative service and understands their foreign exchange requirements by undertaking a structured fact-finding mission.

He says the firm demonstrates how their clients (financial institutions) proposition will meet their needs (customers), by offering a wide product mix from spot, forwards, options and payment solutions.

Prop up deposits

The collapse of three banks in the recent past before two were placed under receivership had also created liquidity gaps in the market making it hard for small banks to mobilise deposits. Meta Capital is helping commercial banks to access key clients to prop up deposits and boost their lending capacity.

The team has also identified rising demand for foreign exchange trading and is therefore training young traders to take up the first expanding FX trading market globally as international trade continues to grow lifting volumes and demand.

The emergence of Kenya as the most sophisticated financial centre in Africa outside South Africa has led to an increase in complexity of products offering and Meta Capital managers are sifting through the products to get the best bargain for the client.

The influx of foreign multinationals and foreign banks into the country is also raising the demand for foreign exchange in the country as they seek to set up local operations.

The group boasts a solid network and partnership with commercial banks as well as non-bank financial institutions which they say ensures that their services are benchmarked to international standards.