Nairobi, April 5 -- While the larger Tier one and the medium sized Tier two banks saw their net profits grow by 21 percent year-on-year in 2022, the amount of unrealised losses on the securities portfolio they held on their books rose four times to Sh66 billion, primarily due to rising rates.

Specifically, Equity Group holdings reported unrealised losses of Sh29 billion on its securities portfolio, which was the highest in the market.

This is more than the Sh15 billion the group will be paying its shareholders in dividends.

As is the convention in fixed-income markets, when interest rates rise, bond prices fall. Banks then have to either re-adjust their holdings or seek funding to cover cash shortfalls, failure to, which they run a ris...