How CBK will monitor your bank transactions in real-time

The Central Bank of Kenya in Nairobi. [File, Standard] The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) will gain real-time monitoring power over customer transactions beginning August 22, following a major system upgrade. This marks a significant expansion of the regulator's supervisory reach, strengthening its ability to surveil the entire banking sector as transactions occur. This new capability forms the core of a technological overhaul designed to detect financial anomalies and potential instability as they happen, fundamentally upgrading the CBK's oversight from periodic reviews to continuous, system-wide surveillance. The new system is the core of the CBK's technological overhaul, part of its broader "Granular Data Integration framework." This framework, which works alongside the bank's long-running "Enterprise Data Warehouse" project (a central repository for data), is designed to capture highly detailed ("granular") information. This initiative will integrate the CBK's data warehouse directly with the systems of the financial institutions it monitors, enabling automated and detailed data collection and analysis. According to the CBK's 2024 Bank Supervision Annual Report, the new system "will significantly enhance the proactiveness of CBK's offsite surveillance," meaning the financial regulator can now analyse the health and activities of banks from its offices in real-time, rather than waiting for reports or conducting physical inspections. The system will provide officials with a unified view of financial activities and immediate, practical insights to drive decision-making, effectively eliminating isolated pockets of data ("data silos"). The upgrade, which required a temporary disruption in high-value payments, was confirmed by the central bank and commercial institutions. In preparation for the rollout, the CBK advised banks to adjust their cut-off times for "Real-Time Gross Settlement" (RTGS). RTGS is a funds transfer system where money is moved from one bank to another in real time and is considered final, typically used for large-value transactions. Two of the country's largest lenders, Equity Bank and NCBA, informed customers that RTGS processing would end at 1:00 pm on Friday, August 22, with normal service resuming on Monday, August 25. Both banks urged customers to use alternative payment platforms like PesaLink (a local electronic funds transfer service) and mobile money services for urgent transactions during this period. "Dear valued customer, CBK will upgrade its banking systems and as a result, the RTGS cut-off on Friday, August 22, 2025, will be at 1:00 pm for both mobile and internet banking payments and 12:30 pm for branch manual transactions," said NCBA to its customers. "Please consider using Pesalink and mobile money transfer as alternative payment methods. Normal RTGS cut-off times will resume on Monday, August 25, 2025 (Mobile and internet banking payments at 4:30 pm and branch manual payments at 4:00 pm)." Equity said: "Dear member, due to CBK's scheduled core banking system upgrade, RTGS processing will be available from 7am-1.00pm on 22nd August 2025 to facilitate go-live preparations. Normal processing hours will resume on Monday, 25th August 2025. We apologise for the inconvenience this may cause." The ability to monitor transactions in real-time is expected to dramatically improve the CBK's capacity to detect financial irregularities, enhance supervision based on risk levels, and respond immediately to potential threats to financial stability, according to CBK. The system will also automate the process of banks submitting required reports to the CBK ("regulatory returns"), reducing their administrative burden.

How CBK will monitor your bank transactions in real-time

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