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SASRA Compliance Guidelines

Last updated: May 2025

This page explains what SASRA compliance means for your SACCO, which obligations apply to your organisation, and how ChamaCore's built-in reporting tools support your regulatory submissions.

Aligned with SACCO Societies Act No. 14 of 2008 and SASRA Prudential Guidelines 2020

Table of Contents

  1. 1. What is SASRA?
  2. 2. Which Organisations Must Comply?
  3. 3. Key SASRA Statutory Returns
  4. 4. SASRA Prudential Ratios and Standards
  5. 5. AML/CFT Obligations
  6. 6. ChamaCore SASRA Compliance Tools
  7. 7. Important Disclaimer
  8. 8. Useful Regulatory Resources

1. What is SASRA?

The SACCO Societies Regulatory Authority (SASRA) is a statutory body established under the SACCO Societies Act No. 14 of 2008 to license, supervise, and regulate deposit-taking SACCO societies in Kenya. SASRA operates under the National Treasury and ensures that SACCOs adhere to sound financial governance, liquidity standards, capital adequacy requirements, and prudential reporting obligations. Only deposit-taking SACCOs (DT-SACCOs) with a front-office service activity (FOSA) are directly regulated by SASRA. Non-withdrawable deposit SACCOs and investment Chamas are regulated separately under the Cooperatives Act and Capital Markets Authority guidelines respectively.

2. Which Organisations Must Comply?

SASRA compliance obligations apply to the following categories of organisations:

  • Deposit-Taking SACCOs (DT-SACCOs): Any SACCO that accepts deposits withdrawable on demand via a FOSA must be licensed by SASRA and comply with all prudential returns.
  • Tier 1 SACCOs: DT-SACCOs with total assets above KES 5 billion are subject to enhanced SASRA oversight including on-site inspections and quarterly CEO attestations.
  • Non-Deposit-Taking (NDT) SACCOs: While not under SASRA's direct licensing, NDT-SACCOs are encouraged to comply with SASRA's non-prudential governance frameworks and are regulated by the Commissioner of Cooperatives.
  • Investment Chamas and Groups: Not regulated by SASRA but subject to the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) Act if conducting collective investment schemes, and to the Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Act (POCAMLA) for AML/CFT obligations.

3. Key SASRA Statutory Returns

SASRA-licensed DT-SACCOs must submit the following prudential returns. ChamaCore's SASRA Report module generates these directly from your ledger data:

  • Annual Financial Statements (AFS): Full audited accounts including balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow — submitted within 4 months of financial year-end.
  • Quarterly Prudential Returns (QPR): Capital adequacy ratio, liquidity ratio, non-performing loan ratio, and member deposit data — due within 30 days of each quarter-end.
  • Annual Return of Members (ARM): Full member register including member number, shares held, deposit balances, and loan exposure — submitted annually.
  • FOSA Monthly Reconciliation: Monthly statement of all front-office transactions reconciled against M-Pesa receipts and bank statements — submitted by the 15th of the following month.
  • Annual Governance Return: Board composition, AGM minutes, conflict of interest disclosures, and CEO/CFO attestation — submitted with the AFS.

4. SASRA Prudential Ratios and Standards

ChamaCore automatically tracks the following SASRA prudential benchmarks and flags breaches on your dashboard:

  • Institutional Capital Ratio: Minimum 8% of total assets. ChamaCore computes this from your equity and asset ledger entries in real time.
  • Liquidity Ratio: Minimum 15% of total deposits and short-term liabilities to be held in liquid assets. ChamaCore flags breaches automatically.
  • Non-Performing Loan (NPL) Ratio: Maximum 5% of gross loans. ChamaCore tracks loan aging and auto-classifies NPLs per SASRA's 90-day rule.
  • Single Borrower Limit: No member loan to exceed 1/3 of total deposits for that member's portfolio. ChamaCore enforces this limit at the loan application stage.
  • Core Capital to Total Deposits: Minimum 10%. Monitored monthly in the SASRA dashboard widget.

5. AML/CFT Obligations

All SACCOs and Chamas operating in Kenya are subject to the Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Act (POCAMLA 2009) and the Counter-Financing of Terrorism Act (CFTA 2010), administered by the Financial Reporting Centre (FRC). ChamaCore supports your compliance obligations as follows:

  • KYC Data Collection: The Platform stores National ID numbers, M-Pesa numbers, and KRA PINs (where provided) to support your KYC records. Organisations are responsible for verifying the authenticity of member IDs.
  • Suspicious Transaction Reporting (STR): The Platform flags transactions meeting configurable thresholds (e.g. single contributions above KES 1,000,000 or unusual repayment patterns) for Administrator review. Administrators are obligated to file STRs with the FRC within 3 days of detection.
  • Cash Transaction Reports (CTR): Transactions above KES 1,000,000 in a single day must be reported to the FRC. ChamaCore's FRC report module generates CTR summaries from your M-Pesa and cash ledger.
  • Record Retention: All transaction records must be kept for a minimum of 7 years per POCAMLA requirements. ChamaCore retains your records for the life of your subscription plus 60 days, and can provide a full export for offline archiving.

6. ChamaCore SASRA Compliance Tools

The following Platform features are specifically designed to support your SASRA and regulatory compliance workflow:

  • SASRA Reports Module: Generates QPR, ARM, and FOSA reconciliation reports pre-formatted to SASRA's Excel submission templates. Accessible under Reports → SASRA.
  • Prudential Dashboard Widget: Real-time display of your key prudential ratios with colour-coded breach indicators. Visible on the main Administrator dashboard.
  • Loan Aging Report: Automatically classifies loans as current, 30-day, 60-day, or 90-day+ past due, supporting NPL calculation and loan loss provisioning.
  • Dividend and Interest Calculation Engine: Computes dividends on shares and interest on deposits per SASRA's approved methods, ready for AGM presentation.
  • Audit Trail Export: A timestamped, immutable log of all Platform actions available for external auditors and SASRA inspection teams.

7. Important Disclaimer

ChamaCore is a financial management software platform, not a licensed regulatory advisor, auditor, or legal firm. The tools and reports provided are designed to assist your Organisation in meeting its compliance obligations, but they do not constitute professional regulatory, legal, or financial advice. Your Organisation remains solely responsible for the accuracy of the data entered into the Platform and for ensuring that all statutory submissions made to SASRA, the FRC, the Commissioner of Cooperatives, or any other regulatory body are correct, timely, and complete. ChamaCore recommends that you engage a qualified SACCO auditor or compliance consultant for formal compliance reviews.