Investigate UT, Capital Banks demise – Minority

The Minority Members in Parliament has called for a bi-partisan investigation to be instituted into circumstances leading to the collapse of UT bank and Capital bank.

The call was made Tuesday at a press conference addressed by the Minority’s spokesperson on Finance, Cassiel Ato Forson.

The Central Bank Monday announced the revocation of the licenses of the two banks due to severe impairment of their capital and as a result it “approved a Purchase and Assumption transaction with GCB Bank Limited that transfers all deposits and selected assets of UT Bank Ltd and Capital Bank Ltd to GCB Bank Ltd. “

While the remaining assets and liabilities will be realised and settled respectively through a receivership process to be undertaken by Messers Vish Ashiagbor and Eric Nana Nipah of PricewaterhouseCoopers, it added in a statement.

However, commenting on the development at the presser, Mr. Forson said “we the Members of the Minority of this Parliament, as a matter of urgency, will be requesting through the Rt Honourable Speaker that the Minister of Finance and the Governor of the Bank of Ghana be invited to brief parliament about this development and to give assurances that depositors will suffer no losses.”

“We are urging the government to, as a matter of urgency, institute a bi-partisan probe into what occasioned the rise and fall of these two banks. We think that this situation needs to be investigated so that if it is true that actions or inactions by owners and managers of these banks actually resulted in the banks collapsing, I believe that the state will have to take action.

“We call for a bi-partisan probe and should be done immediately so that the people of this country will have some confidence in the banking sector to serve as a deterrent, going forward,” he added.