Addressing the press on the development on Tuesday, the ranking member on Parliament’s Finance Committee Casiel Ato Forson urged the “Bank of Ghana to ensure that the acquiring bank in this case GCB which is the largest indigenous bank with both private and public shareholders is not overburdened unnecessarily with non-performing loans and impaired assets.”

[contextly_sidebar id=”00qH9pdyfibW08Ag7njzVWk1K78YFvhe”]He made the comment on the back of GCB’s takeover of UT and Capital banks on Monday.

GCB bank was given the opportunity to assume ownership of the two banks because according to the Bank of Ghana (BoG) the said banks had “severe impairment of their capital.”

BoG also revoked the licenses of the two banks while the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) also suspended the listing status of UT Bank.

However, Mr. Ato Forson at the press conference urged the BoG to ensure that depositors with the two banks do not lose their monies adding that “should this happen, it will result in an unforeseen burden on taxpayers instead of the original owners of UT and capital bank.”

“It is important for us to stress that GCB is a listed company and we are hoping that at the minimum the shareholders resolution was passed before this major transaction was taken. If that is not the case, we urge that the minority and public demand to know whether the resolution of GCB was very much so conducted or approved before this transaction was approved,” the Ato Forson added.

We followed due process

But the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GCB, Raymond Sowah who addressed the press on Tuesday explained that they did not require an immediate consultation with its shareholders before the move but said they used due process.

“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,” he added.

Non-performing loans, banks headache

Figures from the BoG show that non–performing loans (NPL) in the banking sector increased by as high as 69.4% from GH¢ 3.6 billion in July 2015 to GH¢ 6.1 billion in July 2016.

The central bank claimed that most of the NPL also known as bad loans were contributed by mainly Ghanaian companies.

It also attributed the issue to a number of factors, including the general slowdown in the economy, increasing cost of production due to high utility tariffs and loan portfolio reclassification by some banks.

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post Don’t overburden GCB with non-performing loans – Minority appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

This was revealed by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GCB, Raymond Sowah on Tuesday during a press conference.

[contextly_sidebar id=”AFJEvTwCN1RpEhWkiaa5m8ezYB8dp6Vm”]“…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 added.

He made the comment on the back of GCB’s force takeover of UT and Capital banks on Monday.

GCB bank was given the opportunity to assume ownership of the two banks because according to the Bank of Ghana (BoG) they have “severe impairment of their capital.”

BoG also revoked the licenses of the two banks while the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) also suspended the listing status of UT Bank.

Citi News understands that the staff of the two banks who are a little over a thousand will be under probation for about six months under GCB before termination of their contracts.

It is believed that following the probation at least a quarter of workers of both banks will be absorbed while the remaining are likely to lose their jobs.

Mr. Sowah at the press conference also explained that the decision to acquire the two banks was not an easy task.

“GCB was the most profitable bank last year. We must be doing something right to have gotten ourselves to that position. Banks go through some cycles, some good some bad. We are aware of the needs of the customer base that we have and I also want to assure you that we did not take the decision to assume the management of these two banks lightly. We recognize that there are certain things that we can learn from them and as well as certain things that they can learn from us. And that is why we will ensure that we integrate with these institutions seamlessly so that they can bring whatever good they have to deal with their customers.”

The GCB CEO also assured that deposits of customers of both banks will not be lost following the takeover.

“We will take this opportunity to assure all depositors of the two erstwhile banks that their deposits are protected. You can go to the branches that you have used from time immemorial and you will be served,” he added.

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post UT, Capital bank staff to undergo skills assessment – GCB appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.