There are indications that about four Ghanaian-owned banks will merge in order to meet Bank of Ghana, BoG,’s new capital requirement of GHC400m.
The banks, sources say, have already written formally to the central bank about their intention and are working with the regulator to facilitate the process. With about five months left for the coming into force of the new capital requirement directive expected to take effect from December, BoG will soon release names of the banks that want to merge.
BoG has indicated that banks that fail to raise the minimum capital by the deadline will automatically be designated as savings and loan companies.
The Central Bank increased the minimum capital requirement for banks from GHC120m to GHC400m to enhance the financial position of the banks. So far only 12 banks have announced that they are ready to meet the GH¢400m minimum capital requirement based on their shareholders’ funds. They include GCB Bank, Barclays Ghana, Ecobank, Stanbic and Standard Chartered Bank – all tier one banks. They have shareholder funds of GH¢902 million, GH¢1.05 billion, GH¢979 million, GH¢889 million and GH¢927 million respectively.
Those likely to meet the new requirement ahead of time are Fidelity (GHc500 million), Zenith Bank (GH¢702 million), NIB (GH¢791 million) and CAL (GH¢622 million). The rest are ADB (GH¢507 million), Access (GH¢467 million) and UBA (GH¢498 million).
Only four of the 12 banks are indigenous.
By Adu Koranteng
