Banks merger: BoG's move, a step in the right direction- Financial analyst

A financial analyst, Dr. Francis Atsu says that the central bank’s decision to merge five banks into a single bank is a step in the right direction to prevent a systemic effect in the banking sector such that if the Bank of Ghana had not stepped into the situation, there could be a loss of all deposits by customers of these banks.

Ghana’s Central Bank, Bank of Ghana (BoG) on Wednesday announced the merger of The Royal Bank, The BIEGE bank, Sovereign bank, Construction Bank and Unibank to form Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited.

This decision of BoG comes after the failure of the five banks to meet the GHS400 Million minimum capital requirement.

Speaking to Ekourba Gyasi on Atinka AM Drive Thursday, Dr. Atsu noted that the move by the  central bank will instill investor and customer confidence in the financial sector and that customers of these banks should not be alarmed at the development since it will not forfeit customers of their rightful claims and returns.

He said that customers and investors of these banks will be able to go about their banking activities just as they have been doing and there will rather be numerous branches nationwide for customers to go about their banking activities.

According to the financial analyst, giving the explanation of the situation of these banks, if the Bank of Ghana had not intervened in the situation, the banks would not have the necessary “liquid”, that is, monies and resources for operation which would lead to the eventual breakdown in their activities.

On his part, he believes that the banks that have undergone the merger knew that this development was staring at their faces and so people should desist from asserting that there haven’t been processes and regular interactions to arrive at this situation.

Dr. Francis Atsu, however, opined that the assertion from the Bank of Ghana that workers of the bank will not result in job loss is just to cool down tempers. To this, he said the situation will definitely bring about loss of job to some of these workers in the interim.

Ghana|Atinkaonline.com| Odel Boaheng

 

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