Chase Iman

Chase Iman

Chase Bank Kenya opened in 1996 as a commercial bank targeting the underserved SME segment in Nairobi and Kenya's urban corridors. The bank grew its deposit base rapidly through an agency banking model and a network of branches concentrated in high-traffic retail locations, primarily serving salary earners and small business owners. Its ownership was closely held by a group of Kenyan investors including the family of the late businessman Zafrullah Khan. The bank built a loan book weighted toward trade finance, asset finance for SMEs, and unsecured consumer lending. Prior to its collapse, it had grown to roughly 50 branches and was among the top 15 Kenyan banks by branch footprint. The Central Bank of Kenya's intervention in 2016 revealed a shortfall of approximately KES 7.6 billion in capital and liquidity, attributable to insider lending and accounting irregularities (per The EastAfrican, 2016). The receivership placed the bank's performing loan book and deposit liabilities under statutory management, effectively freezing its lending operations and shifting it into runoff mode. In 2018 the State Bank of Mauritius acquired a majority of the bank's assets and some liabilities in a deal brokered by the Central Bank of Kenya and Kenya Deposit Insurance Corporation (per Reuters, 2018). The residual entity retained the Chase Bank name but operates as a legacy vehicle managing the remaining non-performing loans and litigation tied to the pre-receivership period. No new lending or deposit-taking occurs under the Chase Bank Kenya name. What distinguishes Chase Iman from a conventional family office or ongoing investment manager is its legal status as a post-receivership shell — its remaining economic function is asset recovery, not capital deployment. Any residual value flows to creditors and the deposit insurance fund, making it a pure workout vehicle rather than an allocator evaluating new opportunities.