T and C - Bidii Chama

DTB CHAMA GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS

INTRODUCTION

The relationship between the Bank and the Customer is governed by the Laws of Kenya, the following general terms and conditions and any further agreement made in writing between the Bank and the Customer. You must review and agree to these terms before registering on this service.

DEFINITIONS

In these Terms and Conditions, the following words and expressions (save where the context requires otherwise) bear the following meanings:

‘Account’ means any type of account held by the customer with the bank to safeguard the funds corresponding to the e-money issued;

‘App’ means a mobile platform powered by the bank for record keeping used by the user/Authorized person;

‘The Bank, DTB’ means Diamond Trust Bank (K) Limited incorporated in Kenya as a financial institution under the Banking Act

‘Customer, you, yours’ means the holder of a DTB account or wallet as a store of value housed within the bank;

‘DTB wallet’ means a store of value that is housed within the Bank to hold the corresponding e-value of the amount a customer has assigned to their wallet;

‘E Money’ means the electronic monetary value depicted in your M-PESA Account representing an equal amount of Cash held by the Trustee and which may be redeemed through an M-PESA Cash Merchant for an equal amount of Cash;

‘Equipment’ includes your mobile phone handset, SIM Card and/or other equipment which when used together enables you to access the Network;

‘Instructions’ means the instructions given to the Bank by the Customer in relation to the chama Service;

‘Password’ means the personal password chosen by the Customer for purposes and access of the service and authentication or verification by the Bank of the Customer’s identity;

‘Personal data’ means any information concerning a customer that is obtained directly by the Bank or via the Application Product, including identification details, financial data of a personal nature and applicable to the payment transactions carried out by means of electronic money through the wallets;

‘System’ means the multi-media banking and communications software or equipment enabling the customer to communicate with the Bank for the purposes of the Electronic Banking Services.

‘PIN’ means your personal identification number being the password you choose to access and operate your Account and includes the one-time 4-digit PIN sent to you on registration for activating your Account;

‘USSD’ means Unstructured Supplementary Service Data.

“Withdrawal Instrument” includes electronic withdrawal instructions presented by a customer for the purpose of instructing the Bank to pay cash to them.

CONDITIONS CONSTITUTING AGREEMENT

These conditions, as varied from time to, time constitute the Agreement between you and the Bank with respect to the use of Chama services
These Terms and Conditions may be amended or varied by DTB from time to time and the continued use of the App constitutes your agreement to be bound by the terms of any such amendment or variation.
DTB will only vary these Terms and Conditions upon issuance of a 30-day notice to you of its intention to do so, subject of course to DTB’s obligation to comply with an order or instruction or a recommendation from the government, court, regulator or other competent authority
You shall be deemed to have read, understood and agreed to be bound by these conditions upon your registration on the Chama App

DTB ACCOUNT OPENING AND OPERATIONAL

The bank may, upon receipt of an application request and supporting documentation required from the customer, open a DTB account in the name of the customer. The Registration Form will be filled in by electronic means and accepted also by electronic means.
The bank may require proof of the customer’s name, address and supporting documents in order to act on the customer’s instructions.
The postal, email and physical address provided by Customer in the registration process shall be considered the chosen address of the Account and all communication from the Bank shall be sent to either of these addresses. Customer shall notify the Bank in writing on any changes to any of these addresses.
The bank shall maintain the account subject to the customer’s legal status being satisfactory, compliant with these Terms and conditions, the law of Kenya and any other express and implied terms regulating the conduct of banking business in Kenya.
The bank may in its sole discretion restrict or limit the number of accounts you may operate at any one time.
The bank reserves the right to request further information pertaining to your account at any time failure to which may result in limitation on usage of the Chama Service, suspension or termination of the account.

Accounts

The Bank may at its sole discretion and subject to any regulations (where applicable) and at the Customer’s own risk, operate on behalf of such Customer solely or jointly, any of the Accounts capable of being maintained with the Bank.

Joint Accounts

The Customer may open the Account jointly in the name of the Customer and any other person or persons.
Where the mandate in a joint Account is either or survivor, each Customer to the joint Account is authorized to operate the Joint Account individually and it shall be deemed that the instructions given by one Customer to the Joint Account are authorized by the other Customer(s) to the joint Account.
Where the mandate in a joint Account is ‘Jointly’, each Customer to the Joint Account is only authorized to operate the joint Account together with all others (or as specified in the mandate).
Any liability in the joint Account will be borne jointly and severally by each Customer to the Joint Account.

2. Dormant Accounts

An Account without any Customer initiated transaction for a continuous period of 6 months shall be deemed by the Bank to be inoperative and shall be classified as “dormant “.
The Customer will not be allowed to transact on a dormant Account, but the Bank may temporarily activate the account to allow credits. The Bank may also suspend the payment of Interest (if any), suspend the issuance of statements, and/or charge a maintenance fee as may be determined by the Bank from time to time.
The Bank shall endeavour to inform the Customer of the intended classification of the Account as dormant at least one (1) month before such classification and will, upon the Customer’s written or electronic request, inform the Customer of the procedure to be followed to activate a dormant Account.

Group Accounts:

The account holders authorize the bank to honour instructions issued on behalf of the Group by the officials appointed in accordance with the minutes of the Groups meetings given to the bank.
The individual members hereby authorize the bank to open accounts in their individual names under the Group notwithstanding that these accounts will be controlled by the Group in the Group practices & agreements.
Each individual member authorises the bank to accept instructions of the officials currently in office regarding transfer, application, set-off, withdrawals and payment out of funds or dealings of any type including closure, forfeiture, whether those accounts be loan accounts, savings, or deposit provided they are Group Accounts

Customer’s Instructions

The Customer shall only give instructions through the channels as guided by the product or where with the prior approval of the Bank, by email, telephone, facsimile or SWIFT in accordance with the Mandate in force at the time of receipt of the instructions.
You are responsible for all instructions given to DTB in relation to your Account.

CHANNEL ACCESS AND USE

The Customer will be granted access to the service channels including a Mobile App, Web App and USSD.
Upon successful input of the Customer’s Password or PIN, the Bank shall deem this as sufficient proof of the Customer’s identity and grant access to the System without making any further checks or verifying actual identity and without incurring any liability to the Customer in relation to the instructions.

Execution of services

The Bank may subject the Customer to further checks before processing instructions.
The Customer may use the Internet banking services subject to availability of applicable electronic Communication Systems, the adherence to the normal working hours and, the capacity of the institutions and Systems involved in the execution of the services.
The Customer must not send to the Bank instructions through the internet that are subject to deadlines. If deadlines are not met, the Customer will indemnify and hold the Bank harmless against any losses or claims as a result.
The customer will not be allowed to effect a transaction that causes the Account balance of the Customer to go below zero or an overdraft facility approved amount or the authorized limits maintained in the System.

Customer responsibilities

The Customer acknowledges the following risks associated with electronic banking and will take precaution to control and mitigate the same:

The latent risk of a third party secretly obtaining access to the Customer’s electronic access device while the same is connected to the internet.
The risk of viruses spreading to the Customer’s electronic access device upon use of the internet, networks or electronic data carriers. Security precautions by the use of Virus scanners (anti-viruses) are strongly recommended
Customer risks by using unlicensed software from untrustworthy sources.
Customer must ensure to log-off from the electronic services to end the sessions.

Collection of Information

We collect your personal information with your knowledge and consent when you do any of the following:

a) create a profile with DTB chama by providing information;
b) ask for more information about a product or service or contact DTB with a query or complaint;
c) respond to or participate in a survey, marketing promotion, prize competition or special offer;
d) interact with us as a supplier, agent, merchant or dealer as prescribed in this statement; or
e) visit any of our premises.

We will also receive personal data about you from various third parties and public sources.

What Information is collected?

The information we collect and store about you includes but is not limited to the following:

a) your account information, including your name, phone number, email address, Identity number, KRA PIN, residential address;
b) your transaction information;
c) your preferences for products and services;
d) information provided by you or from your use of our services;
e) your contact with us, such as when you call us or interact with us;
f) your social media information or emails to us;
g) information on your visits to our office; and
h) your public record or data that you have made public.

Use of Information

We may use and analyse your information for the following purposes:

a) to install the APP and register you as a new APP user;
b) to enable you to use our products and services;
c) to manage our relationship with you, including notifying you of changes to the APP and any services or products;
d) to administer and protect our business and this app including, troubleshooting, data analysis and system testing;
e) to help you organize how you communicate with others, we help you identify your contacts who also use our services, and you can create, join, or get added to groups;
f) responding to any of your queries or concerns;
g) verifying your identity information through publicly available and/or restricted government databases in order to comply with applicable regulatory requirements;
h) keeping you informed generally about new products and services and contacting you with offers or promotions;
i) complying with any legal, governmental or regulatory requirement or for use by our lawyers in connection with any legal proceedings;
j) in business practices including quality control, training and ensuring effective systems operations;
k) understanding how you use our network, products and services for purposes of developing or improving products and services;
l) preventing and detecting fraud or other crimes and for debt recovery;
m) marketing as more particularly provided in clause 4; and
n) researching, statistical, survey and other scientific or business purposes.

We may disclose your information to:

a) law-enforcement agencies, regulatory authorities, courts or other statutory authorities in response to a demand issued with the appropriate lawful mandate and where the form and scope of the demand is compliant with the law;
b) our subsidiaries, partners and software developers who are involved in delivering the bank’s products and services you use;
c) fraud prevention and Anti-money laundering agencies;
d) survey agencies that conduct surveys on behalf of Diamond Trust Bank;
e) third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer or merge parts of our business or assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this Policy; and
f) any other person that we deem legitimately necessary to share the data with.

We shall not release any information to any individual or entity that is acting beyond its legal mandate.

Safeguarding and Protection of Information

Diamond Trust bank maintains reasonable and appropriate security measures to protect personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions, and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you or any applicable regulator, including the Data Commissioner, of a breach where we are legally required to do so.
We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.
We try to respond to all legitimate requests within a reasonable time. Occasionally it could take us longer if your request is particularly complex or you have made several requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.
All the merchants on our DTB Chama App are bound by DTB’s privacy policy and you hereby expressly consent that some of your personal identifiable information may need to be shared with some merchants for them to offer you certain services in accordance with the laws of Kenya. DTB does not permit any use, storage or processing of data contrary to the applicable laws including the Kenya Data Protection Act as further detailed in our privacy policy. We encourage you to read the privacy policy carefully before accepting these terms and conditions

5.2. You shall be liable for any loss or cost suffered by the Bank as a result of any breach of this Agreement

5.3. The Bank shall not be liable if it is unable to perform its obligations under this Agreement due to the failure of any machine, data process system, transmission link, industrial dispute, terrorist action or anything outside its direct control or that of its agents or subcontractors

The Bank shall not be responsible for any losses suffered by the Customer by reason of:

the shutdown or delay in the availability of a customer’s mobile service provider, internet service provider or other third-party provider;
any viruses, trojan horses, worms, logic software, other bombs or other similar programs or routines (including hacking) affecting any website, electronic channels or the Customer’s own facilities; or
incomplete messaging or sending of instructions.

CHAMA LOANS

Loans facilitated through this app are peer-to-peer (P2P) and are not issued or guaranteed by Bidii Chama or the bank. All loans are funded and managed by the chama members as per the group’s independent rules and agreements. Bidii Chama only provides a digital platform to facilitate record-keeping, transaction management, and communication within the group.

The loan terms, conditions, and eligibility criteria for loans are determined and agreed upon by the chama members. The app does not regulate or enforce group-specific rules. Users are responsible for adhering to the bylaws of their chama. Any disputes regarding loan amounts, interest rates, repayment timelines, or penalties must be resolved internally by the chama.
Loan agreements are established between individual members of the Chama. Bidii Chama is not a party to these agreements. Loan terms, such as interest rates, repayment periods, and penalties, must be recorded in the app by the group administrator for transparency. Members are advised to review all terms carefully before accepting any loan.
Users must ensure that they fully understand their group’s loan terms and conditions before participating in lending or borrowing activities. Borrowers are responsible for timely repayment as per their chama’s agreement.
Bidii Chama is a tool to support group financial management and does not provide loans, guarantee repayments, or mediate disputes.
The app is not responsible for any losses, disagreements, or defaults that occur as part of lending and borrowing activities. Users acknowledge that their group operates independently, and the app is not liable for the group’s decisions or actions.
All loan records are confidential and accessible only to authorized group members. Bidii Chama does not share or use financial data for purposes outside of app functionality, as outlined in our Privacy Policy.

USE OF THE CARD

The card is a prepaid product which can be used to pay for goods and services at suppliers that display the card scheme symbol. To use the card, present it at the time of payment. Use it in full or part payment of your purchase.
When you receive your card, depending on the type of card you have you may need to retrieve your PIN before you can use it. Please follow the instructions you receive with your card.
You must not make purchases that exceed the balance of funds available on the card. Your balance will be reduced by the amount of each purchase you make. If any purchase takes you over your available funds or the card limits the transaction will be declined.
You can use the card to make purchases in-store, online or over the phone. This is not a debit card supported by a bank account and is not in any way connected to a bank account. It is also not a guaranteed card, charge card or credit card. You will not earn any interest on any funds loaded on to the card.

VARIATION AND AMENDMENT

The Bank may vary and amend these Terms and Conditions at any time upon issuance of a 30-day notice subject to the requirements of any statute in addition to publishing Specific Terms and Conditions in relation to the DTB chama product.
Notification of any such variation and/or amendment shall be given to the Customerby publication thereof of by such means as the Bank may select. Any variation and/or amendment so effected shall be binding on the Customer.
Any additional and/or updated instructions on use of the Bank’s Electronic Banking Services can be found on the Bank’s website dtbafrica.com

SEVERABILITY OF TERMS

Each of the provisions of these Terms and Conditions is severable and distinct from the others and, if at any time one or more of those provisions is or becomes invalid, illegal or unenforceable, the validity, legality and enforceability of the remaining provisions shall not in any way be affected or impaired

INDULGENCES

No indulgence by the Bank in respect of any of its rights hereunder shall operate as a waiver of the Bank’s rights nor shall it constitute a novation thereof.

GOVERNING LAW & JURISDICTION

The Application Form, these Terms Conditions and any other documents required to be executed by the Customer in connection with the Account, shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Republic of Kenya and the Customer submits to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the Kenya courts.

INTENTION TO BE BOUND & INDEPENDENT LEGAL ADVICE

The Customer has executed these Terms and Conditions with the intention to be legally bound by the contents herein.
The Customer hereby agrees and confirms that they have read and understood these Terms and Conditions and have sought and obtained independent legal and and financial advice regarding the legal, tax, financial or other implication arising under these Terms and Conditions.