Finnet Trust Services Limited has secured formal registration as a corporate trustee from the Retirement Benefits Authority, giving the Nairobi based firm regulatory standing to manage pension and retirement schemes in Kenya.
The Authority granted the registration on 20 August 2026, effective the following day, and issued Finnet Trust Services a Certificate of Registration under Certificate No. RBA/1/16/010, Registration No. CT010. The approval falls under the Retirement Benefits Act and the Retirement Benefits (Corporate Trustees) Regulations, which set out capital, governance and fiduciary requirements a company must meet before it can hold members’ retirement savings in trust.
What the Registration Allows
Corporate trustee status lets Finnet Trust Services serve umbrella schemes, individual pension plans, income drawdown funds and occupational schemes on a licensed basis. The company operates as part of the Finnet Nexus Group, alongside sister entities that include the Finnet Institute, Finnet Insurance Agency, Finnet Capital, Finnet Technologies, the Executive School of Governance and Management, and the Finnet Foundation.
Godwin Kibet Simba, the company’s chief executive, framed the registration as confirmation rather than a change in how the firm operates.
“This registration is an important endorsement of the standards we have worked to establish since inception,” Simba said. He added that the company’s governance and fiduciary practices were already in place before the certificate arrived, and that the regulator’s approval now backs that foundation formally.
The company said the Group maintains what it calls a Trust Capital Wall, a structural separation intended to keep trustee decisions insulated from capital and investment activity elsewhere in the Finnet Nexus Group.
A Sector Managing Trillions
Finnet Trust Services becomes one of a small number of companies licensed to act as corporate trustees under regulations the RBA introduced in 2023, which require applicants to be limited liability companies with minimum paid up capital and dedicated fiduciary systems before they can take on scheme assets.
The registration lands at a moment of rapid growth for Kenya’s retirement savings industry. Pension assets under management crossed KSh 2.7 trillion in 2025 and have continued climbing through 2026, driven by higher mandatory contributions and stronger investment returns on government securities and equities. That expansion has increased scrutiny on trustees, since a growing pool of member savings raises the stakes attached to governance failures.
Ongoing obligations for a registered corporate trustee include filing annual audited financial statements, keeping an up to date register of directors and senior management, reporting any change in shareholding or leadership within thirty days, and paying regulatory fees on schedule. Finnet said its company secretary and head of legal and compliance oversee these duties, tracked against a group compliance calendar.
Why It Matters for Scheme Members
For pension scheme sponsors and members, a corporate trustee’s RBA registration signals that an independent regulator has reviewed the company’s capital position, systems and fiduciary structure against a national standard, rather than relying on the company’s own assurances.
Kenya has seen governance disputes in retirement schemes before, including a long running case that forced Standard Chartered Bank Kenya to pay roughly KSh 7 billion in pension arrears after a Supreme Court ruling, a reminder of how costly weak scheme governance can become.
Finnet Trust Services said it will continue serving customers, schemes and partners under the standards expected of a regulated trustee, with the certificate marking a formal milestone in a governance framework the company says predates the approval itself.
