I&M Bank has waived Bank to Mpesa charges providing a reprieve to customers who have been complaining of high transaction charges.

The waiver will apply to its digital banking platform ‘I&M On The Go (OTG)’ to mobile money wallets.

It becomes the first lender in Kenya to offer zero fees on Bank to Mpesa and Airtel Money transactions after the Central Bank of Kenya introduce the charge in January 2023.

The financial institution will roll the offer to Telkom’s T-Kash later.

According to I&M Digital Business General Manager Michael Mwangi, the Bank reviewed its policies on Bank to Mpesa charges for digitally active customers through recent customer feedback showed that their transaction rates are favourable.

“We believe this move will offer new and existing customers a huge relief during tough economic times and encourage more customers to transact on mobile,” he added.

Financial institutions won when the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) resumed fees for transferring money from banks to MPesa wallets, which was something they had pushed for.

As part of an emergency effort to promote mobile money transactions amid the height of the Covid-19 outbreak, the government reduced fees on March 16, 2020.

“A key focus for the bank since the launch of our current iMara 2.0 strategy is to enhance our digital banking solutions to meet the needs of our customers. We look forward to seeing these numbers grow with digital transactions gaining favour among our digitally active customers,' he said.