The Central Bank of Kenya has announced that the region’s commercial banks are set to begin tracking large cash deposits and transfers to advance compliance with ISO 20022. In a bid to fast-track local compliance with the transparent financial transaction processing standard, the Central Bank of Kenya (CKB) implemented a new directive which demands commercial banks to trace high-value transactions, typically over approximately USD 7,707 (KES 1 million).

The move follows an October 2023 directive on money laundering and terrorist financing, which commenced Purpose of Payment (PoP) transaction codes. Despite not setting a deadline for compliance specifically for Kenya, financial institutions across the world are obliged to comply with this requirement by the end of 2025. Among the first commercial banks in Kenya to inform customers of the CBK’s measures was NCBA, with other banks being projected to implement PoP codes for Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) transactions, enabling customers to move large amounts of cash between financial institutions instantly.

When notifying its customers, NCBA underlined that the CBK mandated the use of PoP codes for RTGS payments as part of the adoption process of ISO 20022 messaging standards. The commercial bank mentioned its plans to offer the necessary support for an optimised transition to the new payment standards. How do PoP codes support ISO 20022 adoption? With PoP codes categorising transactions based on transparency and regulatory compliance, their introduction is set to enable banks to track and report the nature of cash deposits and transfers via additional fields for code recording.

Also, PoP complements ISO 20022 through the standardisation of data formats worldwide, which allows consistent transaction communication and financial data processing. If Kenyan commercial banks do not comply with Anti-Money Laundering (AML) laws, they could receive fines of nearly USD 155,000 (KES 20 million), impacting their operations. .