East Africa Financial Focus 2026

Drawing on our work with banks, insurers, regulators, and market participants, this collection of articles examines how financial institutions are responding to heightened regulatory scrutiny, digital disruption, climate risk, capital pressures, and evolving business models.

This edition combines analysis of region‑wide trends with country-specific developments, offering practical perspectives for executives, boards, regulators, and investors navigating a rapidly changing financial services landscape.

• Transforming for success: Insights from the 2025 Eastern Africa Banking Survey - Executive perspectives on profitability, digital adoption, evolving business models, regulatory uncertainty, and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) integration across the region.
• Capital raising requirements for banks under Kenya’s Business Laws (Amendment) Act, 2024 - Implications of revised core capital thresholds, recapitalisation pathways, consolidation trends, and balance sheet strategy for Kenyan banks.
• Virtual asset regulation in Eastern Africa: Kenya’s evolving landscape - An in‑depth look at Kenya’s Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) Act and its impact on banks, fintechs, capital markets, and regulatory oversight.
• Cybersecurity in banking: Emerging threats and resilience strategies - Analysis of rising cyber risks, digital fraud trends, and practical approaches to strengthening cyber and operational resilience across financial institutions.
• Banking in a warming world: Navigating climate risks in East Africa - How climate‑related physical and transition risks are reshaping credit risk, capital adequacy, loan pricing, governance, and disclosures.
• Uganda Revenue Authority revised ruling: A new reality for banks - The tax treatment of interest income on government securities and its implications for profitability, compliance, and capital planning in Uganda.
• Beyond compliance: Unlocking strategic value from IFRS 9 Expected Credit Loss models - Moving IFRS 9 from a regulatory exercise to a strategic tool for pricing, portfolio optimisation, stress testing, and capital allocation.
• Accelerating digital transformation across the insurance value chain - Digital underwriting, claims automation, embedded insurance, and customer engagement trends reshaping the insurance sector in East Africa.
• Corporate simplification and managed wind‑downs in financial services - Using structural simplification, wind‑downs, and restructuring to enhance efficiency, release capital, and align with regulatory expectations.

At PwC, we remain committed to providing actionable insights and tailored guidance to help financial institutions innovate, comply, and thrive in this dynamic environment.