The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has advised commercial banks who may not meet the 400 million cedi minimum capital requirement by December to apply to reduce the class of their licences from universal banking status or risk closure.
According to the Special Advisor to the Governor , Dr Benjamin Amoah, whereas there is still a window of opportunity for the banks that are yet to meet the requirements to explore mergers, applying for a reduction in the class of licence to become financial institutions or microfinance companies would ensure that the owners of those banks are to maintain their businesses.
Dr Amoah said this on the sidelines of a financial reporting workshop organised by Journalists for Business Advocacy (JBA), in partnership with Ecobank Ghana.
He said the BoG has a tier system made up of the universal banks, savings and loans, rural banks and microfinance institutions, so if one cannot meet the standard requirements of a universal bank, it will be appropriate to apply to be reduced to a lower class which is equally allowed.
The programme, which focused on Understanding the financial market. The role of journalists”, is to develop their capacity to be able to report critically on issues relating to the development of the financial market.
Representatives of the BoG, Dr Simon Harvey, Natalia Lawson and Stephen Amoah educated participants on monetary policy, promoting financial stability and regulating the microfinance industry.
Answering questions on panic withdrawal, Dr Amoah stated that the present financial market does not call for panic withdrawal,adding that no bank can meet depositors withdrawing all their money at a go, since they may not be able to meet the withdrawal structure owing to the fact that money is deposited in banks as a means of financial inter mediation.