The number of Kenyan bank accounts carrying at least Sh500,000 increased by more than 42,000 in 2025, but the bigger change came among smaller accounts, whose numbers fell by nearly 34 million during the same period.
Data contained in the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) Bank Supervision Annual Report 2025 shows that 788,853 deposit accounts had balances of Sh500,000 or more by December last year.
The figure was up from 746,665 accounts recorded in December 2024, translating to an increase of about 5.6 per cent.
Despite the growth in higher-balance accounts, the overall number of accounts holding less than Sh500,000 recorded a much steeper movement.
CBK figures show that such accounts declined from nearly 117 million in December 2024 to slightly above 83 million at the close of 2025.
The reduction amounts to almost 34 million accounts in one year, with the biggest change coming from KCB Bank Kenya Ltd.
KCB’s accounts with balances below Sh500,000 fell from about 53.6 million to roughly 12.2 million between December 2024 and December 2025.
That represents a drop of more than 41 million accounts, making KCB’s change larger than the overall decline recorded across the banking industry.
Several other large lenders moved in the opposite direction during the period.
NCBA Bank Kenya, Co-operative Bank and Absa were among the major banks that recorded increases in accounts holding less than Sh500,000.
The CBK report does not state why KCB’s figures changed so sharply.
The report's accompanying narrative does not indicate whether the reduction resulted from dormant accounts being removed, migration of banking systems, reclassification of accounts or another process.
Because of the scale of the change, the figures may point to a reporting or accounting adjustment at KCB rather than millions of customers actually shutting their accounts.
High-balance accounts remain a small share
The CBK report puts the combined number of deposit accounts held in commercial banks and microfinance banks at 84,111,829 as of December 2025.
Accounts containing Sh500,000 or more accounted for just under one per cent of the total.
NCBA Bank Kenya had the largest number of accounts below the Sh500,000 threshold, with 36.3 million accounts.
KCB, Equity Bank, Co-operative Bank and Absa followed among the five commercial banks with the highest total number of accounts.
The figures should not, however, be read as a count of individual Kenyans with at least Sh500,000 in savings.
CBK's data is based on bank accounts rather than individual customers. A single customer, including a business, can maintain several accounts either within one institution or across different banks.
Consequently, the 788,853 accounts with balances of Sh500,000 and above do not mean an equal number of people or businesses had that amount in the bank.
The account figures are part of CBK’s monitoring of access to banking services and financial inclusion in the country.
[The report frames the data as part of CBK’s ongoing tracking of financial inclusion], alongside insured and customer deposit figures published elsewhere in the same document.
While the number of accounts holding Sh500,000 or more recorded moderate growth during the year, the steep reduction in lower-balance accounts is the most striking movement in the data.
The sharp change, particularly in KCB’s reported figures, leaves questions over how the accounts were recorded between the two reporting periods since the CBK report does not give a detailed explanation for the shift.