GSE extends deadline for banks to file 2022 audited financial statements

The Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) has approved a request by the Ghana Association of Banks (GAB) to extend, by one-month, the filing of 2022 audited financial statements.

The request by GAB was made on behalf of eight listed bank and will now move the date to April 30, 2023 instead of March-ending. The banks are: Access Bank Ghana, ADB, CalBank, Ecobank Ghana, GCB Bank, Royal Bank Ghana, Standard Chartered Bank Ghana and Société Générale.

The extension, which will enable the banks to work effectively with their external auditors to achieve the audit objectives, became necessary because of banks’ ongoing discussions with government over the proposed Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP).

The deliberations, GAB explains, have implications for the assessment of expected credit losses and their impact on 2022 financial statements; hence the need for extension.

So far, stress tests are being conducted by relevant financial sector regulators to estimate the potential impact of the programme on various industry players: including banks; specialised deposit-taking institutions; insurance firms; asset managers; collective investment schemes; and pension fund trustees, among others.

The GSE said it is against this background that the date for filing the 2022 audited financial statements has been extended by one month to April 30, 2023. It also encouraged the banks that can conclude their audit in time to publish their audited financial statements within the existing statutory timeline.

Launched in December 2022, the DDEP encourages holders of Government of Ghana securities to voluntarily exchange approximately GH¢137billion of the domestic notes and bonds for new ones. The programme has however been met with resistance from various groups and analysts.