Safaricom and Equity Bank's financial results have shown that the mobile banking and money transfer system is handling more transactions than that of traditional banking systems.

Last year, Equity Bank said it would not invest in additional physical branches and would push the digital model of banking. This year the bank is also looking to lay off 400 staff members in addition to the 600 jobs that were cut last year due to digitisation.

According to Equitel, a telecom company owned by Equity Bank, it processed over 150 million transactions during the period, handling 10 times more transactions than the ones processed by branches . The transaction amount grew by 142% during the 9-month period ending 30 September 2016.

"In just one year of operation, Equitel captured 15% of the national mobile cash transfers both in number of transactions and value of transfers processed," Equity said.

The company also reported to have disbursed 3.5 million loans totaling to Kshs 30 billion.

Sidian bank is in the process of laying off 108 staff members, while Family Bank will also follow suit, although it has not specified the number of staff who may be affected.

Safaricom on the other hand is reported to have transacted over Kshs 3.2 trillion shillings more than last year's national budget of Kshs 2 trillion, over their mobile money transfer system, M-Pesa.

This is compared to 2.5 trillion transacted by the same time last year.

In their six month unaudited report ending 30 September 2016, M-Pesa revenue increased by 33.7% to Kshs 25.9 billion as compared to Kshs 19.35 billion recorded over the same period last year.

Safaricom has stated its intention to allow users to send less than Kshs 100 without charges, enabling small businesses to opt to go through the mobile money ecosystem.

Equity Bank is planning to push its digital products to push its profitability as mobile money leader, M-Pesa engulfs more users in its platform.