How Branch Loan App became a Bank

 Popular digital lender in Kenya - Branch International'- became a bank early this year (2022). But how did it happen?

Branch Brief History to Century MFB Acquisition.

Second after Tala in launching mobile money lending services in Kenya via an app, Branch International have been and is still providing among the most affordable loans via MPesa to borrowers in the country.

After years of service, some exploitative mobile loan apps came into the market and started harassing Kenyans will unacceptable high interest rates, shorter repayment durations,debt shaming and aggressive debt collection tactics.

This got the attention of the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) after a huge number of Kenyan borrowers started rioting on social media about said apps.

The country and the world at large was alreasy battling with the economic effects of the COVID pandemic when this happened. 

The CBK noted a rise in the number of Kenyan borrowers blacklisted by the three licensed Credit Reference Bureaus ( CRB) - TransUnion, Metropol and CreditInfo .

In a move to safeguard citizens from such falling victims to such predatory lending the Central Bank banned all digital lenders and ordered legitimate ones to register afresh with the bank regulator.

Most probably ,in order to be more 'clean and legit' just like the licensed commercial banks ,Branch picked the idea of venturing into banking.

How Branch International Joined Banking

Late last year, branch got the approval by the Central Bank to acquire 84.89% stake in a popular Nairobi microfinance Bank - Century MFB.

Branch's journey to be a fully fledged bank started in January this year (2022) with the banking hall services provided by Century MFB.

Did anything change in the branch app? Yes. In addition to providing loans now the app have the following services too;

• Money transfer services
• Pay bills

We expect more though soon.

Branch also changed a few words on Google play store to be in line with the other services the app provides now. Instead of the previous 'personal finance app' ,it is now 'Digital Bank & Loans.'

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