Let’s run down to specifics on this man (Reuben Koech) and the non performing track record, Underperformance & interest rates

Let’s go back to age old wisdom which says that all men are not created equal. And as a simple Kenyan citizen, I believe in that more than anyone else. In any group, you will find overachievers and not so trusted achievers but when one’s achievement crosses the negative line to the south, it’s never a forgiving story. While getting rid of the latter may seem the obvious solution at all solution at all times in all profiteering organizations, it’s not necessarily what NBK has done to this serial under-performer, Mr. REUBEN KOECH.

While other banking institutions were successful in transferring the non-performing button which has become of this kingpin, NBK has been very lenient even on the obvious situations listed below:

1. Banks mainly generate revenues from interest on loans, interest rates in a liberalized economy like the one in Kenya are market driven but largely influenced by CBKs interest rates policy at any given time. As such, when the government intensifies internal borrowing, the deposits markets shifts substantially and government bonds become attractive to the market which then forces a scramble on deposits held by the banks. Unfortunately for the household consumer, the borrowing interest rates go up unless banks are willing to make losses triggered by interest expense. This happens to have been the case in a better part of 2015 and whilst it is a no brainer for any graduate who has ever been into a class where economics units are studied, the reverse chronology seemed to have been the comfort zone for this man, Mr. Koech. Reuben allegedly maintained interest rates below T-Bills and as rumours stroll around, they manage to scavenge on specific information that this man had negotiated a fund-back strategy with customers to reimburse him 50% of the saved interest oblivious of the fact that this had a direct relationship to the bank’s operating income and hence the question, “who is he working for?” since you cannot blatantly and painfully bite the hand that feeds you.
2. To successfully deliver the dinosaur to the river, this kingpin targets only Kalenjin customers who essentially are not corporate in any nature and have zero corporate demeanor. This tribal mentality is so entrenched that it is so obvious to anyone in the organization. A local witness within the organization who sought anonymity for fear of victimization explained that this kingpin has an office bigger than the MDs and tribal affiliates flows into that office like a turbulent river and all of them report all the happenings to their godfather who sits in the board, one MR. KERING’. It is said that the office is normally busy and the TRIBAL force is trying to have Mr. Koech as the MD despite his underwhelming performance in the industry. This fame has technically gained him access to all Kalenjin women in the organization. It is intimated that Mr. Koech holds meetings in a well-known hotel with the likes of Grace Lotera of Procurement, Albin Sigei of Premises, Dorothy of Audit and Emily Oduor of Premium banking while planning to oust and devour the Chief Operating Officer Mr. Tomaso Gachie simply because he belongs to the TNA side of the Jubilee coalition and hence not friendly to their unknown agenda.
3. The little known kingpin is currently trying to gel political support from the DPs office in support of his underperformance since he has never been confident about his ability without a Godfather support.
4. Due to these political affiliations, Koech has been trying to eliminate competitions and indeed hounded out the then Executive Director Mr. Samson Okero to pave way for him to further demonstrate incompetence in that position. He was angrily supported by the Board Godfather who has no appreciation of corporate performance and would rather have a tribe-mate rather than a performer. Scattered pieces of information suggest that Reuben has been engineering too many baseless rumours about the organization with an aim of putting the organization in bad light with the hope that he will be given the leadership of the organization.

Quotes:

• Performance stands out like a ton of Diamonds; Non-performance can always be explained away.
• It’s much more difficult to reward Non-Performers than Performers.
• Virtue is more clearly shown on the performance of fine actions than in the non-performance of base ones.

EXPOSED!!! You won't believe what this bank director has been up to

Sorry folks, I have been off the radar as I have been too busy and I haven’t written in a while, but I am back and I hope it’s worth the wait.  Today we talk about a National Bank’s director one Reuben Koech.  His recent profile on one of the corporate websites read as, ‘Mr. Koech joined National Bank in August 2013. He holds a Bachelor of Arts (Economics Majors) and MBA, Strategic Management Option both from the University of Nairobi. He also has certification in credit assessment and analysis by Omega of UK and Culhanne of South Africa. Reuben is a career banker with more than 15 years of experience leading growth in the Corporate Banking space and developing high performance teams at leading international as well as regional banks. He has significant experience in Corporate relationship management for public and private sectors, retail banking, credit analysis & assessment and management, complex loan syndications including PPP financing projects, renewable energy finance etc. Prior to joining the Bank, Reuben worked for Co-operative Bank of Kenya as a Senior Manager in charge of Energy and Manufacturing Sector within Corporate Banking & Trade Finance Unit. He has also worked for Fina Bank (Now GT Bank), CfC Stanbic Bank and Standard Chartered Bank in various leadership roles.’

A rosy profile from the surface if you ask anyone, however, what the profile doesn’t say is how the so called ‘career banker’ is an underperformer in his job and has only moved up the ladder through his cunning art of deception and his whoring among banks as my research has shown. Let us open this Pandora‘s box to who Koech is.

Koech started his banking career at Fina Bank (currently GT Bank), his tenure there was to be short lived as he could not meet any of his targets during the period. He has been described as a ‘cold and lackluster’ young man that no one thought would make manager level. From there he found his way to CFC Stanbic bank in the guise that he was a strategic transformer and had many connections in the market. This lie later caught up with him when he was again fired for not performing and what his then manager called ‘not giving a damn about his job’. His short stint at Stanchart also came with its struggles as the junior relationship manager could not bullshit his new management and soon got his marching orders for poor performance. Luckily, the jobless young man had a relative at Co-operative bank who hand-held him and gave him a management position in the bank and that was the beginning of his profile as a career banker (sic). Life at Coop was easier as with a godfather to hold his hand he was able to cover his incompetence and also managed to get the best performing portfolios to manage. Rumour has it that at one time there was a management split at coop bank when he was given a role in Energy and Manufacturing – a portfolio he had only interacted with in his dreams.

A lucky man, Koech was able to convince one Munir Ahmed of national bank that he had what it takes to join his transformation team to ‘bring greatness to NBK again’. He got a job at NBK where he was tasked to bank more institutions and corporates. Further research shows that during his first year at the bank he had medical conditions that had seen him exhaust his policy with bills and Munir’s administration had to donate to him Kes. 1,000,000 to help settle his bills. Currently, his relation with Munir and the one executive director he reports to, one Boniface Biko, is said to be cordial and working well. Still, his targets are sometimes short despite getting one of the best businesses automatically due to historic relationships between national bank and the firms. He is solely responsible for the bank losing out on some of the accounts to local competitors such as coop and KCB. He also is known for making stupid decisions that one would not expect from a Manager, like pricing loans so low to even below 10% when the market is at 17% or more.  Colleagues fear him as it is claimed he can easily backstab anyone in order to get his way or to avoid problems with his seniors.  He also has godfathers at board level and it is rumored that if you touch him, all come chasing after you.

At national bank Reuben found another proper way to pass his time, a lady by the name Lydiah Saina. Lydiah is one of the senior managers at the bank and her relationship with Reuben is that of more than just colleagues. The two have been going out for the past one and a half years which has resulted to problems both at work and at home. Currently, the two love birds are expecting a baby. It is said that Lydiah’s Congolese husband did not take the affair well and has decided to bounce leaving the lady in massive debt and unable to sustain her livelihood. This has left Lydiah with only two loves that of Reuben and her newly found one of the bottle. She drinks like a fish and never makes it to work on time. She has also been seen around with one board of director’s member, one Kering.  They spend considerable time together at masai lodge – which makes one wonder what a manager would be talking with a board member on a weekend.  To my earlier baby point – I wonder whose baby this is? Reuben is however taking care of his lover and his family is said to be okay with this affair.

National bank is an important bank for all taxpayers and it is our hope that they will clean their house before it goes down the flames.

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