The long wait of the 4300 creditors of the disgraced Imperial Bank, which closed its doors in October 2015 when the Kenya Deposit Insurance Corporation (KDCI) put it into receivership following a mega fraud executed by some of its executives, may be over.
After six long years, the Central Bank of Kenya has declared that Imperial Bank Limited may be liquidated and the process of selling its assets, especially real estate, across Kenya will begin. With the gain, then, creditors can be gradually paid off.
The previous acquisitions, which came from the purchase of some of the former bank's assets by Kenya Commercial Bank, had served to repay the more than 45 thousand small creditors and then begin, in small part, to pay off the large savers who, in the meantime, had joined groups and started sacrosanct legal battles.
After having already collected 37.3% of the total deposits and having in 4 years paid back what was repayable, CBK in September 2020 requested the appointment of an external auditor to examine all the accounting books.
A few days ago, finally Imperial Bank's bankruptcy administrator recommended that the bank be put into liquidation, as it has definitely become insolvent. On December 8, CBK appointed KDIC as Imperial Bank's liquidator.
KDCI has indicated that it will release information on the liquidation of Imperial Bank Limited and the payment of depositors in due course."
We recall that the Imperial Bank "case", especially for the offices of Malindi, Watamu and Mombasa, also put in difficulty hundreds of Italians and Europeans, tourists and residents, who had accounts in Kenya, including major investors whose activities have been blocked or have suffered serious consequences. Those who had credits of less than 2 million shillings were settled within two years, while those who had higher savings have so far recovered only a small part of what the company, through the misdeeds of its managers, would have subtracted and taken out of the bank's vaults.