Business

Trade CS Betty Maina has cleared the air on the ban on mitumba clothes imports, stating that the government never issued a directive banning them. The CS on Monday, August 11, clarified that she imposed temporary restrictions as the Covid-19 crisis called for the prohibition of the importation of goods…

Two major names in the reinsurance world are set to combine their operations. A definitive agreement has been reached between Sirius International Insurance Group, a multi-line insurer and reinsurer, and specialty reinsurer Third Point Reinsurance Ltd, to combine in a stock and cash transaction. The combined firm will subsequently be…

Office email services have been used to impersonate and scam nearly 6,600 organizations so far this year, according to a study by email security firm Barracuda Networks. Barracuda found that 6,170 malicious accounts that have used Gmail, AOL and other services have been responsible for more than 100,000 business email…

Rocket Companies, the parent of U.S. mortgage lender Quicken Loans, said its initial public offering (IPO) was priced at $18 per share on Wednesday, below a target range, and that it sold fewer shares than planned. Rocket sold 100 million shares to raise $1.8 billion in the IPO, which valued…

Mortgage application volume declined during the week ended July 31 even as mortgage interest rates reached another all-time low. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said its Market Composite Index, a measure of that volume, decreased 5.1 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier and was down 5 percent…

Mortgage rates cooled off yesterday, rising for the first time since July 27th for the average lender. Between now and then we’ve seen a string of what have mostly been new record lows with top tier 30yr fixed offerings well under 3%. It’s an interesting time for rates.  We’ve seen record lows before, but…

U.S. gasoline and diesel crack spreads diverged sharply in March and April as a result of the mitigation efforts aimed at slowing the spread of the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), but they have moved closer since May. Crack spreads are the difference between the price of crude oil and the wholesale price of…

Hotels and restaurants can now serve alcohol using a new protocol that has been announced by Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala. The CS on Tuesday, August 4, indicated that hotels can serve alcohol only in private rooms. The CS was replying to the Kenya Association of Hotel Keepers and Caterers…

More than 530,000 civil servants will in January have their salaries slashed. According to Business Daily, the civil servants, who include teachers and police will take-home pay cut by 7.5 percent. This is because they will start contributing to their pension savings scheme. The employees attached to ministries and State…