The story
The institution was incorporated in 1988 as African Finance Company. In 1992, the finance company re-branded as Fidelity Finance Limited. In 1996, the institution re branded again as Fidelity Commercial Bank Limited, having been granted a banking license by the Central Bank of Kenya, the national banking regulator.
In 2013 the bank was accused of insider lending by top shareholders of the bank against CBK rules.
In November 2016, SEM listed SBM Group announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire a majority stake in the bank. This process was concluded in May 2017 and the bank's name was changed to SBM Bank (Kenya) Limited.
In April 2018, SBM Holdings of Mauritius concluded the acquisition of the majority of assets and liabilities of Chase Bank Kenya Limited, which had been under receivership since April 2016. It was expected that those assets and liabilities, together with the 1,300 Chase Bank employees, in about 62 branches, would be absorbed in SBM Bank Kenya. That acquisition began in April 2018, with conclusion planned for August 2018.
From Wikipedia’s article on SBM Bank Kenya Limited, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3