Following the Presidential assent of the Central Bank of Kenya (Amendment) Act 2021 on December 7, 2021,the law that will grant the CBK to license and supervise digital lenders has come into effect.
CBK said in a statement: “The Amendment provides the Central Bank of Kenya with the powers to license and oversight the previously unregulated digital credit providers.”
The Amendment demands CBK to publish Regulations within three months and accordingly CBK has announced the issuance of draft Digital Credit Providers Regulations and has invited reaction from digital lenders and public remarks on the same.
“The Regulations provide for inter alia the licensing, governance, and credit operations of Digital Credit Providers (DCPs),they further provide for consumer protection, credit information sharing, and elaborate on the Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) obligations of DCPs,” CBK said.
Also, in order to ensure an orderly transition to a regulated environment, the regulator urged all unregulated DCPs to submit their business details by January 21, 2022.
