Standard Chartered (StanChart) Kenya, the country’s eighth-largest bank by assets, is putting its East African headquarters in Nairobi up for sale, Bloomberg reported on Monday.
The seven-storey building, sitting on 1.88 acres in the capital city, will likely be collateral damage in a market where the lender cut employees by 5.9% in 2025. StanChart has already sold two other properties in Kenya, including one in Nyeri, in 2025, signalling a reduction in its physical assets.
State of play: StanChart Kenya has steadily reduced its workforce since 2014, cutting headcount from a peak of 2,048 to 942 by the end of 2025, as it prioritises wealth banking.
While the move could signal its continued downsizing or refocus, StanChart said it still plans to maintain an active presence in Kenya.
And this explanation tracks as the lender recently said it wants to target Kenyan high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs), strategically reducing its operations in retail banking, where larger Kenyan banks, like Equity and KCB, hold all the leverage. According to the National Taxpayers Association (NTA), Kenya has 7,200 HNWIs, one of the highest in Africa, and a sizeable market for StanChart to aggressively pursue.
Between the lines: StanChart’s overall assets under management for its affluent banking segment have grown steadily over the past decade. The bank’s affluent assets under management (AUM) now stand at $447 billion, up at a compound annual growth rate of 11% since 2017. Growth has been sharpest in recent years, with affluent AUM rising 64% between 2023 and 2025, the strongest two-year run in the period, signalling that the bank is simply following the money upmarket.
It is a strategy that is playing out in Kenya, too, where the bank has been pivoting toward the affluent segment.
Zoom out: StanChart is expanding in Africa, launching full banking operations in Egypt in 2024 and opening a representative office in Casablanca, Morocco.