The Ghana Commercial Bank has defended what some have called a premature takeover of UT and Capital Banks, saying it did not require an immediate consultation with its shareholders before the move.
[contextly_sidebar id=”sQEwuo1LcKcAfi83ysNsERs3BcAx31O8″]Following the revocation of the licenses of the two banks, concerns have been raised on the takeover without the consent of its shareholders.
Speaking at a press conference in Accra, the Managing Director of GCB Ronald Sowah however said due diligence was followed in the acquisition of the two banks.
“When did the GCB come in?I must say that is a privileged information. I cannot disclose that to you. If you were at the Bank of Ghana press conference, they indicated the sensitivity of the matter and therefore everything had to be hush-hush because they were concerned about certain things going wrong. Now we have a lot of respected shareholders. We could not say that we are going to conduct an AGM or EGM to ask this question. This is something that we can deal with post assumption.”
UT Bank, Capital Bank employees to undergo skills assessment
Reacting to concerns on the new staff of the bank, Mr Sowah gave the assurance that the necessary process will be followed in laying off some of the workers.
He said employees will undergo skills assessment to qualify for employment at GCB Bank.
“…We shall conduct a skills assessment as part of integration process we need to know that we can bring everyone onboard or not. This is an expanded institution and as we go through the integration we should know what jobs to close down and what jobs to retain,” he explained.
Why the takeover?
GCB was authorized to take over the two banks because according to the Central Bank, they had “severe impairment of their capital.”
The collapsed banks were also “unable to develop an acceptable plan”, according to the Central Bank which indicated in a statement that it made efforts to help UT Bank and Capital Bank recover via private alternatives.
The Central Bank said there were “repeated agreements between the Bank of Ghana and UT Bank and Capital Bank to implement an action plan to address these significant shortfalls.”
However, the owners and managers of UT Bank and Capital Bank were unable to increase the capital of the banks to address the insolvency.
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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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