The value of assets under management by Stanbic Bank’s Kenya unit hit Sh4.03 billion at the end of March 2025, marking the fastest growth among bank-owned unit trust schemes in the first quarter of the year.
The asset base marks a 63.3 percent rise from Sh2.44 billion at the end of December last year, signalling continued interest in the shilling-denominated money market fund and dollar-denominated fixed income fund that the lender introduced to the market in mid-September last year.
Head of insurance and asset management at Stanbic, Anjali Harkoo, said the unit closed December with 1.2 million asset management customers, a figure which grew to two million by the end of March this year, despite the environment of falling returns. She added that a third of the Sh4 billion or about Sh1.3 billion is in dollars.
Stanbic’s 63.3 percent growth was the fastest among unit trust schemes owned by banks, according to the Capital Markets Authority data.
NCBA scheme grew by 27 percent to Sh49.95 billion, while that run by Absa grew by 44 percent to Sh21.5 billion. Absa unit trust asset base was followed by Co-op at Sh17.7 billion after a 31 percent growth, while that of KCB stood at Sh13.3 billion after a 43 percent growth. Equity Investment Bank scheme posted a one percent decline to Sh117.92 million.
Explaining why Stanbic made a foray into the asset management business, Ms Harkoo said that the lender observed a trend where some of their large customers were moving part of their money to large external asset managers.
“We launched the product in September last year. There has been very good uptake from our customers and the assets under management hit just over Sh4 billion at the end of the first quarter [this year]. We have invested in a new team and operating systems to sustain the momentum,” said Ms Harkoo during Stanbic’s media engagement session.
The shilling-denominated fund requires a minimum investment of Sh1,000, while the dollar-denominated one requires at least $100 (Sh12,900), targeting individual and institutional investors.
Ms Harkoo said that the lender is working on a digital application that will allow convenient saving in the money market fund. This will be an improvement from the current shortcode option as it hopes to onboard more customers.
“Our clients are becoming much more sophisticated and asking for more investment options with higher yields. They are moving away from the traditional savings and fixed deposit accounts,” she said.
