‘Sovereign, Beige bank’s licence was attained through false pretence’ – BoG Governor

Beige Bank, Construction and Sovereign Bank’s licenses were obtained by false pretenses through the use of suspicious and non-existent capital, Bank of Ghana’s governor has said.

Dr Ernest Addison explained during a media briefing on Wednesday 1st August 2018 that investigations conducted by the Bank of Ghana revealed the three banks used an inaccessible capital to acquire their license to operate.

“Beige Bank and Construction Bank were each granted provisional licenses in 2016 and launched in 2017. Subsequent investigations conducted by the Bank of Ghana revealed that similar to the case of Sovereign Bank, both banks obtained their banking licences under false pretenses through the use of suspicious and non-existent capital, which has resulted in a situation where their reported capital is inaccessible to them for their operations.” He stated.

The Bank of Ghana has collapsed five banks namely; Sovereign bank, Beige bank, Construction Bank, Unibank and Royal bank into a Consolidated Bank of Ghana Limited.

The move according to the governor is because the affected banks were ‘significantly’ undercapitalized and beyond rehabilitation.