Chase customers brace for three-day outage in switch to SBM

Chase Bank has alerted its clients of a looming service shut-down as the lender transitions into SBM Bank.

Operations will remain closed from tomorrow when Mauritian lender SBM Group is expected to complete the acquisition of Chase Bank, which is under receivership. “Due to ongoing transition from Chase Bank to SBM Bank, all our operations remain closed on August 17-19.

“Services will resume on Monday, August 20,” said yesterday the lender in an alert to customers.

The takeover has seen Chase Bank close some of its branches but the majority will be rebranded and re-launched on August 20.

In July, Chase Bank informed its customers that in view of the acquisition of certain assets, 10 branches including Kisumu Xpress, Pangani Xpress, Medi Plaza and Delta Branch in Nairobi would be closed.

The lender collapsed in 2016 with more than Sh100 billion in deposits. Some depositors received part of the deposits while it was under the care of the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK).

The CBK and the Treasury approved Chase Bank acquisition in June.

SBM entered the Kenyan market in 2016 after acquiring Fidelity Bank, which it rebranded to SBM Kenya in May 2017.

The new owners notified former Chase Bank subsidiary Rafiki Microfinance customers last week that they may delay issuing their cheques by up to 21 days.

The bank did not respond to the Business Daily queries on whether customers could expect any further interruptions in services following the acquisition by the time of press yesterday.
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