The future of collective investment schemes in the Kenyan capital market

Abstract

This study set out to assess the Kenyan capital market and establish whether the conditions considered necessary for operation of collective investment schemes exist. These conditions were divided into three main groups: general factors. institutional factors and legal, regulatory and supervisory issues. A cross-sectional census was conducted, by means of a questionnaire and views or capital market licensees were collected. These parties, which included the regulator. the security exchange, the brokers, the dealer, the investment advisors or fund managers and the depositories, were selected as they are expected to be involved in operation or collective investment schemes, once implemented. An overall analysis showed that the capital market licensees are all very optimistic regarding the future of collective investment schemes in the Kenyan capital market, and they agree that the current institutional, legislative, regulatory and supervisory factors are capable of supporting the operations of collective investment schemes. A comparative analysis of the data collected highlights the different opinions of the different licensees, and brings out the areas of concern, particularly in reference to their operations. For example, although most players feel the current manual trading system is under-utilised, one investment advisor highlighted that the system would be incapable of handling the magnitude of expected growth that is expected on introduction of CIS. On the issue of current economic stagnation, different licensees gave their opinions as to what current problems were and some even suggested solutions.