Equity Bank has restored its banking services after a technical disruption temporarily affected customers across its various service channels on Thursday, October 1, 2026.
The lender had earlier alerted customers that its services were experiencing intermittent downtime as its technical team worked to resolve the problem. Equity asked customers to bear with the bank as efforts to restore normal operations continued.
“Dear Member, we are experiencing intermittent service downtime affecting all our services. Kindly bear with us as the technical team works to restore the services. We regret any inconvenience caused,” the bank said in a notice to customers.
The bank did not initially give details on what had caused the disruption or identify the specific banking channels affected.
The interruption comes as Equity customers increasingly rely on digital and self-service platforms for everyday banking, including payments, transfers and other transactions.
Equity Group Holdings reported in its 2025 financial results that more than 98 per cent of customer transactions were carried out outside branches, with digital channels accounting for 88.4 per cent of transactions.
The group had 22.4 million customer accounts at the end of 2025, highlighting the large number of customers who depend on its banking systems to access financial services.
The growing use of digital banking also means technical interruptions can affect a wide range of customers, particularly those who rely on mobile and online platforms rather than visiting physical branches.
The Central Bank of Kenya’s latest banking-sector data shows that digital financial services have continued to grow as customer transaction habits change. Its 2025 Bank Supervision Annual Report, released on September 30, 2026, highlighted the continued shift towards digital financial services.
Amid the disruption, Equity also issued a warning to customers over possible fraud attempts by individuals who could use the outage to impersonate bank officials.
The lender reminded customers that it uses one official telephone number when contacting them and warned against giving confidential banking information to anyone claiming to represent Equity.
“Please remember, Equity calls you from only one number 0763 000 000. Do not engage with anyone asking for your personal banking details. Equity will never ask for your bank details, PIN, Password, OTP or Card information on phone or SMS.”
Customers were specifically advised not to share their account details, PINs, passwords, one-time passwords or card information through phone calls or SMS messages.
The warning comes against the backdrop of rising cyber and banking fraud risks in the country. According to the Central Bank of Kenya’s Financial Sector Stability Report, reported cyber-fraud cases in the banking sector increased from 173 in 2023 to 353 in 2024.
The amount exposed through the reported cases rose from Sh680.9 million to Sh1.96 billion over the same period, while actual losses increased from Sh412.5 million to Sh1.59 billion.
Mobile banking fraud cases also increased, rising from 78 in 2023 to 146 in 2024.
The Central Bank has identified cyber risk among the challenges facing the financial sector as it continues to strengthen cybersecurity oversight and improve the resilience of banks.
Equity’s warning therefore urged customers to carefully verify any communication claiming to come from the bank, especially during periods when banking services are experiencing technical problems.
The latest disruption is not the first time Equity’s digital services have experienced an interruption. In October 2025, the bank experienced a disruption affecting transfers between bank accounts and mobile-money wallets, temporarily affecting the real-time movement of funds between the platforms.
Equity’s October 1 disruption was later resolved, allowing customers to resume normal access to the bank’s services.
The bank has not attributed the latest outage to a cyberattack, and the information released by the lender does not establish that the disruption was caused by malicious activity.
Equity Group remains one of Kenya’s largest financial institutions and has continued to invest in technology as more customers shift towards digital and self-service banking channels.
The bank’s 2025 results showed the extent to which customers now depend on these channels, making the availability of its digital banking systems an important part of its day-to-day operations.