Kenya’s state-owned Postbank has opened its network of more than 600 branches and agent outlets to customers from other banks through PesaLink, the country’s interbank payments network.
The deal means customers of participating banks can walk into a Postbank outlet, deposit cash, and have it credited directly to an account held elsewhere, without opening a Postbank account.
Until now, banks largely had to negotiate individual agreements to access another institution’s agent network. Gituku Kirika, chief executive of Integrated Payment Services Limited (IPSL), the company behind PesaLink, said banks and SACCOs now have an opportunity to “open their existing agent networks to other institutions, allowing customers to access cash services through agents beyond those operated by their own financial institution.”
Postbank’s addition takes PesaLink’s network to 80 financial institutions, including commercial banks, microfinance firms and savings and credit co-operatives (SACCOs). The network added 12 members over the past year, bringing all 38 licenced commercial banks in Kenya onto the same payments system. It now processes an average of KES 4 billion ($30.8 million) daily, up 24% from a year earlier, and KES 110 billion ($846.5 million) monthly, up 41%. According to PesaLink, about 98% of transactions are successful.
The Kenya Bankers Association incorporated Integrated Payment Services Limited (IPSL) in 2015 under the National Payment System Act.
