Customers now confident in Ghana's banking sector - Patricia Sappor

President of the Ghana Institute of Bankers has said customers now have confidence in the banking sector following the clean-up exercise undertaken by the Bank of Ghana.

According to Patricia Sappor, this is a result of the corporate governance policies set out by the central bank in the wake of the clean-up exercise.

Addressing banking practitioners at the institute's 24th National Banking Conference in Accra, the President of the Ghana Institute of Banks explained the soon to be launched Ghana Banking of Code of Ethics will take effect to ensure ethical compliance from all financial institutions.

"The Ghana Banking of Code of Ethics is a collaboration between Bank of Ghana, the Ghana Association of Bankers and the Chartered Institute of Bankers coming together with the endorsement of the government under ACT 991 to further reinforce confidence in the banking sector by way of ensuring ethical behaviour by all staff members in the banking sector."

Mrs Sappor however said with the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic, many banks have had to innovate and implement technology into their operations.

"As banks have virtually migrated to digital activity in their operations and platforms, it is therefore vital that Cybersecurity is critically necessary for their operations and we at the [Chattered Institute of Bankers fully endorse the Cybersecurity regulation," she added.

As part of its efforts to restore confidence in the banking and specialized deposit-taking sectors, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) embarked on a clean-up exercise in August 2017 to resolve insolvent financial institutions whose continued existence posed risks to the interest of depositors.

The clean-up saw the revocation of licenses of 9 universal banks, 347 microfinance companies, 39 micro credit companies or money lenders, 15 savings and loans companies, 8 finance house companies, and two non-bank financial institutions.

The move by the central bank was a comprehensive assessment of the savings and loans and finance house sub-sectors carried out by the BoG in the last few years after it identified serious breaches.