BORROWERS ACT TO ENSURE TRANSPARENCY — BOG (PAGE 23, MAY 3, 2010)

THE Deputy Head of the Banking Supervision Department of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Mr Franklin Belnye, has said the implementation of the ‘Borrowers and Lenders Act’ would bring clarity and transparency between the banks and their clients.
He said the Act would be complemented with a credit reference bureaux system that would provide credible information for credit decision making.
Mr Belnye, who was speaking at the opening of the 15th branch of the International Commercial Bank (ICB) at Korle-Bu, said the move was the BoG's commitment to creating a good environment for lending in the country.
He said Ghanaian banks had survived, without casualties, despite the impact of the global financial crisis that led to the collapse of some very prominent international banks.
"Although there were no casualties, we experienced our share of the global financial crisis in the form of rising inflation and relatively faster exchange rate depreciation throughout most of last year".
He, however, noted that inflation had assumed a downward trend while a measure of stability had returned to the forex markets.
He said,"the total banking system remains sound and stable, with total banking assets expanding by over 30 per cent in 2009” and attributed it to the growth in deposits, and the re-capitalisation policy of the BoG.
He advised the bank to tighten its credit delivery processes and tailor their products to meet the needs of their clients as part of efforts in finding ways to profitably deploy its resources.
He said BoG would continue to implement appropriate policies to create an enabling environment for the thriving of the banking business.
The Chief Executive Officer of ICB, Mr Sanjeev Ananb, said after its establishment in Ghana in November 1996, the bank had come a long way, having established a network of 15 branches over the period and that the branches were located in very strategic business centres of Accra, Kumasi, Takoradi and Techiman.
Mr Ananb said ICB Ghana was a member of a group of 14 banks under the ICB Global Financing Holding umbrella with 10 of them based in Africa.
He noted that ICB had injected fresh capital into its operations and had met the requirement of BoG of GH¢ 60 million, adding that the bank was poised to expand its operations and businesses and to consolidate its excellent customer relations.
He explained that the bank had all the necessary financial products to meet the specific requirements of every segment such as small enterprise, medium enterprise and corporate entities.