Equity Bank Kenya Limited today announced withdrawal of a one month notice it had issued to its customers to increase interest rates on loans effective November 19, 2015, providing a reprieve on already prohibitive lending rates in the country.
In its notice dated October 20, 2015, the bank sought to align interest rates to new Treasury Bills interest rates which had peaked at above 22% on October 15. It is this notice of loan interest rate increase that Equity Bank has revoked, meaning its’ customers will continue to pay the old interest rates on loans and maintain the existing loan repayment installments.
While releasing the Equity Group’s third quarter results recently, Equity Group CEO predicted that the high interest rates regime would be short-lived and would be over by the first quarter of 2016. “We are pleasantly impressed with the speed at which the Government has been able to reduce the Treasury Bills rates” said Dr James Mwangi, the Group Chief Executive Officer as he addressed the media briefing. “As anticipated, the rise in interest rates was a short-term measure but it has been shorter than we had anticipated, hence the withdrawal of interest rates increase notice.”
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