Central Bank of Kenya (CBK): regulatory returns

What this page covers

45 returns. The Central Bank of Kenya does not publish one consolidated list of every periodic return it collects, unlike some other regulators in this library; this page is anchored on the Bank's own sector-specific legal instruments, read in full: the Prudential Guidelines (CBK/PG/01 to CBK/PG/22, January 2013) and the Risk Management Guidelines (January 2013), both linked from the Legislation and Guidelines page and both issued under section 33(4) of the Banking Act, which annex the return forms for commercial banks, mortgage finance companies, non-bank financial institutions and representative offices of foreign banks; the 2025 Basel III liquidity and leverage ratio guideline and its three Excel return templates; the Microfinance (Deposit-Taking Microfinance Institutions) Regulations, 2008 for microfinance banks; and, for the other populations the Bank Supervision page lists, the Money Remittance Regulations, 2013, the Forex Bureau Guidelines, 2011, the Digital Credit Providers Regulations, 2022, the Banking (Credit Reference Bureau) Regulations, 2020 and the National Payment System Regulations, 2014. By population: 25 returns for commercial banks, mortgage finance companies and non-bank financial institutions licensed under the Banking Act (balance sheet, capital, asset quality, liquidity, market risk, large exposures, AML/CFT, compliance, agent banking, group structure, governance, published financial statements and FX Global Code conduct); 1 for representative offices of foreign banks; 8 for deposit-taking microfinance banks licensed under the Microfinance Act; 3 for money remittance providers; 4 for forex bureaus; 1 for digital credit providers; 1 for credit reference bureaus; and 2 for payment service providers. Order follows the brief's priority: commercial banks and mortgage finance companies first, then microfinance banks, then the other licensed populations the Bank's pages list. Left out: non-bank financial institutions (the Bank Supervision page says none are currently licensed); the Mortgage Refinance Companies Regulations, 2019 and the draft Credit Guarantee Business and Virtual Asset Service Providers Regulations (not yet in force); the Credit Officer Survey, Banking Sector Innovation Survey and MSME Access to Credit Survey (research surveys with no legal basis or published form found, as distinct from the returns listed here); the discontinued Kenya Banks' Reference Rate data series (last published May 2015); the Kenya Green Finance Taxonomy and Climate Risk Disclosure Framework (a disclosure framework, not a periodic return); payment system rules that are not reporting returns (KEPSS, the Electronic Matching System); one-off licensing, application and notification forms; and any return that would require requesting the Bankreturns or Non-Bankreturns Portal login pages, which this page does not do. Source

How firms file

• Bankreturns Portal

  The online system the Bank's homepage links for filing bank returns (footer link 'Bankreturns Portal', hosted at bankreturns.centralbank.go.ke/bsa/); its own login page was not requested, following the rule never to request submission portals. A 2008 Banking Circular says returns in the then-new CBK BS(M) format were, from May 2008, filed through the Electronic Return Transmission Software (ERTS); no page found on the current site names the system in use today beyond this portal link, so it is not known whether ERTS is still the underlying system or has been replaced by the Bankreturns Portal under a new name. Source

• Non-Bankreturns Portal

  A second online system the homepage links (footer link 'Non-Bankreturns Portal', hosted at non-bankreturns.centralbank.go.ke/bsa/). Its name suggests it is for the Bank's other licensed populations (microfinance banks, forex bureaus, money remittance providers, digital credit providers, credit reference bureaus and payment service providers), but this was not confirmed on any page read, and its login page was not requested. The same host's 'Templates/Software Downloads' link answers 200 but renders only a page titled 'Return Compilation Interface Login Page' with no further links or downloadable content. Source

Data the CBK publishes from the returns

• Bank Supervision Annual Report

  Added up across firms · PDF

  Published once a year. Chapter 1 gives the structure of the banking sector (ownership and asset base of commercial banks, distribution of branches and ATMs, asset base of microfinance banks, and distribution of forex bureaus and money remittance providers); later chapters give sector-aggregate capital adequacy, asset quality, liquidity and profitability figures. The report does not name which return feeds each table; the returns listed here are matched by subject. Source

  From: CBK BS(M), CBK/PR3, CBK/PR5-2, CBK/MF BSM, CBK/MFPR/06

  Reuse: The regulator's general licence terms apply (see the top-level licence block); no separate reuse terms were found for this report.

Reuse terms for the CBK's documents

Central Bank of Kenya: copyright notice and website disclaimer, on the Privacy Policy page, checked 13 November 2026. In the CBK's words:

Copyright 2016 © Copyright Central Bank of Kenya. All rights reserved. [The page states no terms for copying or reusing the site's content.]

Can others share copies?

Unclear.

Conditions

None stated. The Central Bank of Kenya reserves all rights and gives no terms for reusing its material.

What the library does

Links each document on the regulator's own site, with its size and SHA-256 fingerprint so a change can be spotted. Documents are never hosted on line4.ai.

What could not be verified

Said plainly, so nobody relies on a fact the sources do not give.

• The home page footer link 'Templates/Software Downloads' (non-bankreturns.centralbank.go.ke/SoftwareDownload) answers 200 but renders only a page titled 'Return Compilation Interface Login Page', with no links or content when read with page.py; no templates or software could be found there, contrary to the brief's expectation that it would be a public downloads page.
• The Bankreturns Portal (bankreturns.centralbank.go.ke/bsa/) and Non-Bankreturns Portal (non-bankreturns.centralbank.go.ke/bsa/) login pages themselves were not requested, following the rule never to request submission portals; it could not be confirmed which populations file through which portal, or in what file format, beyond what each sector's regulations state about the content of each return.
• A 'Draft CBK Prudential Guidelines, Risk Management Guidelines, Guidance Notes, and Framework for Domestic Systemically Important Banks' is linked from the Legislation and Guidelines page (dated 10 September 2026) as a draft, not yet in force; it was not read in full because it is a consultation draft, not the Bank's current rules, but it signals that the 2013 Prudential Guidelines and Risk Management Guidelines this page is built on may be replaced. None of the returns on this page are marked 'being replaced' because no final replacement has been published.
• The 2025 Basel III liquidity and leverage ratio guideline (CBK/LCR/01, CBK/NSFR/02, CBK/LR/03) does not state whether it replaces the 20% statutory minimum liquidity ratio return (CBK/PR5-2) set by the 2013 Guideline on Liquidity Management; both are recorded here as in force because no page states that CBK/PR5-2 has been withdrawn.
• The Guideline on Publication of Financial Statements (CBK/PG/10) and the Guideline on External Auditors (CBK/PG/09) both name an annual return 'PR21' (in 'certified copies of the BSM-A, PR4-1A, PR21 and PR3-A returns') without ever defining what PR21 covers or giving it a full title; no other mention of PR21 was found in the Prudential Guidelines.
• Kenyalaw.org (the National Council for Law Reporting) was not requested because it was not needed: the Central Bank of Kenya hosts its own current copies of the Banking Act, the Central Bank of Kenya Act, the Microfinance Act, the National Payment System Act and the Kenya Deposit Insurance Act, which this page cites instead.
• elegislation.gov.ke and other third-party legal databases were not requested for the same reason: CBK's own hosted copies of the Acts were used throughout.
• The CBK circulars on implementing the AML/CFT (Amendment) Act 2023 and the mutual evaluation report action plan (for example Banking Circular No. 6 of 2023) are scanned image PDFs with no extractable text (pdftotext returns an empty body), so it could not be confirmed whether the UN 1267 sanctions list return (CBK/IF 9) and the suspicious transaction report (CBK/IF 8 and CBK/FXD/5) still run through CBK directly or now run through Kenya's Financial Reporting Centre under the Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Act.
• Section 3.12 of the Guidelines on Prohibited Business (CBK/PG/07) also names a Form CBK/PR7-1, 'Advances, Bill Discounts and Other Facilities to any Person or Connected Group Exceeding 25% of Core Capital', with the same title, threshold and deadline as CBK/PR4-3 under the Guideline on Risk Classification (CBK/PG/04). The Prudential Guidelines do not explain whether CBK/PR4-3 and CBK/PR7-1 are the same return cross-referenced under two codes, or two separate filings; recorded here as the same return as CBK/PR4-3 and not duplicated.
• This 2013 guideline predates the AML/CFT (Amendment) Act 2023 and CBK's 2023 circulars implementing its mutual evaluation action plan; those circulars (for example Banking Circular No. 6 of 2023) are scanned image PDFs with no extractable text, so it could not be confirmed whether sanctions-list screening and reporting now run through a different channel, such as the national Financial Reporting Centre.
• As with CBK/IF 9, it could not be confirmed whether suspicious transaction reporting now runs through the national Financial Reporting Centre rather than CBK directly; the 2023 AML/CFT amendment circulars read were scanned image PDFs with no extractable text.
• The Guideline on Publication of Financial Statements (CBK/PG/10) and the Guideline on External Auditors (CBK/PG/09) both refer to an annual return 'PR21' (certified copies of 'BSM-A, PR4-1A, PR21 and PR3-A') without ever defining what PR21 covers; no other mention of PR21 was found on the pages read.
• The Activity and Portfolio Report form (Eleventh Schedule) has columns headed 'Prior Month' and 'Current Month', which suggests more frequent use, but regulation 51 (the only regulation that cites this Schedule) requires only an annual review of assets and submission of the review report and return within fifteen days of that review. Recorded as annual per regulation 51; the mismatch between the form's column headings and the regulation's stated frequency is not explained on the pages read.
• The Forex Bureau Guidelines say reporting institutions should, pending establishment of the Financial Reporting Centre, submit Suspicious Transaction Reports to CBK 'in the meantime'; the Financial Reporting Centre is now established (it is a separate body from CBK), so the current recipient of this form could not be confirmed from the pages read.
• Regulation 33(1) of the Digital Credit Providers Regulations, 2022 also allows the Bank to require digital credit providers to submit 'periodic reports and returns as may be specified by the Bank' as part of on-site and off-site monitoring; no named return or published form for this general power was found on the pages read.
• Regulation 60 of the Banking (Credit Reference Bureau) Regulations, 2020 also requires bureaus to furnish periodic reports of their business operations, including a systems report, 'in such form and within such period as the Central Bank may specify'; no named return or published form for this requirement was found on the pages read.

Sources

• CBK: Legislation and Guidelines
• CBK: Circulars
• CBK: Bank Supervision
• CBK: Bank Supervision & Banking Sector Reports
• CBK: Prudential Guidelines (January 2013)
• CBK: Risk Management Guidelines (January 2013)
• Banking Act (Cap 488)
• Central Bank of Kenya Act (Cap 491)
• Microfinance Act, 2006
• CBK: Guidelines on the Liquidity Coverage Ratio, Net Stable Funding Ratio and Leverage Ratio (April 2025)
• The Microfinance (Deposit-Taking Microfinance Institutions) Regulations, 2008
• The Money Remittance Regulations, 2013
• Forex Bureau Guidelines, 2011
• Central Bank of Kenya (Digital Credit Providers) Regulations, 2022
• National Payment System Regulations, 2014
• National Payment System Act, 2011
• Banking (Credit Reference Bureau) Regulations, 2020
• The Foreign Exchange Code (March 2023)
• CBK: Privacy Policy (licence)
• CBK home page (links the Bankreturns and Non-Bankreturns portals)

Knowing exactly what is collected, in what format and under which rules is the first step to real-time supervision. See every regulator in the regulatory returns library.