Capital Markets Authority enforces measures to curb investors from losing their funds

The Capital Markets Authority (CMA) has orders money market funds to disclose in detail where they have invested clients cash as well as the terms of those deals following revelations of investment gambles that have lost investors billions of shillings.

CMA acting CEO, Wycliffe Shamiah, said the regulator plans to audit the committees that make investment decisions after they realized some of the funds were being controlled by lone rangers.

“As we review we also ask you to explain more on the terms of those assets as you disclose them. We will go into investment committee sitting in the find managers that make those decisions because we can see there are specific decisions left to one individual as opposed to a committee which can have better ideas,”Mr Shamiah said.

Unit trusts in Kenya held a cumulative Sh71.4 billion in assets under management by the end of September 2019, latest data from CMA shows, with 92.4% of these assets held in government securities, cash deposits and listed equities.

Recent developments where some of the funds reportedly lost billions to collapsed businesses including Nakumatt, Athi River Mining, Chase and Imperial Bank have raised calls for better oversight on where clients money is invested by the funds.