CBK said yesterday Bank Al-Habib Ltd of Pakistan (BAHLP) is opening the office in Kenya.
It may later launch a full banking subsidiary in the country.
The launch of the office comes less than a year after the regulator reported that such offices in Kenya had doubled the value of the transactions they carried out in 2016 to Sh239.7 billion.
A Sh650 billion-asset Pakistani bank has opened a representative office in Nairobi to tap into the multibillion international transaction business in its first investment in Africa.
Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) said yesterday Bank Al-Habib Ltd of Pakistan (BAHLP) is opening the office in Kenya by the name BAHL-Representative Office.
A representative office does not carry out commercial banking services but is allowed to do research, marketing and liaison roles on behalf of the parent bank and its affiliates.
It may, however, later launch a full banking subsidiary in the country.
“The authority to open a representative office is granted...BAHLP is a commercial bank headquartered in Pakistan, which offers retail and corporate banking, as well as international trade finance services,” said the CBK.
The launch of the office comes less than a year after the regulator reported that such offices in Kenya had doubled the value of the transactions they carried out in 2016 to Sh239.7 billion.
The deals were in syndication with a value of Sh61.5 billion, specialised finance at Sh21.3 billion, project financing worth Sh18.8 billion, trade finance at Sh18.1 billion and correspondent banking at Sh1.9 billion.
The CBK said the bank was using BAHL — instead of that of its parent — as the name of its Kenyan office to distinguish itself from two Kenyan banks that bear the word Habib in their names. The banks referred to are Habib AG Zurich and Habib Bank, which DTB acquired last year.
The bank has operations in Bahrain, the Seychelles, China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
“BAHL–Representative Office will explore business opportunities in Kenya and the wider East and Central African region as part of BAHLP’s long-term global expansion strategy. The representative office will also seek to promote growth in trade between Kenya and Pakistan,” said the CBK.
According to the bank’s website, the institution has assets amounting to $6.5 billion (750 billion Pakistan rand), which makes it just about the same size as KCB Group.
The site shows the Pakistani bank has a network of 661 branches and sub-branches.
