Measures were premature

KENYAN central bank governor Patrick Njoroge said measures introduced by the government to stoke consolidation in the country’s banking industry might be premature. Raising minimum core-capital requirements was not the appropriate instrument to strengthen lenders in east Africa’s biggest economy, Njoroge told lawmakers yesterday in Nairobi. In his annual budget speech in June, Treasury secretary Henry Rotich said minimum capital requirements would increase fivefold over the next three years to promote competition among lenders. “This is not how to approach it and this is not the time,” Njoroge said. “We may have rushed consolidation.” – Bloomberg