Ever since the Bank of Ghana (BoG) offered the opportunity to commercial banks in the country to list on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) to raise money to shore up their stated capital to GH�60 million, no bank has approached managers of the Accra Bourse.
The Central Bank gave the option to the banks to go to the GSE as a last resort, especially in the event they fail to find other banks to partner.
Dr Henry Kofi Wampah, acting Governor of the Bank of Ghana, who disclosed this over the weekend at an awards night organized by uniBank for its long-serving and outstanding employees, said his outfit would never renege on the December 2012 deadline for the attainment of banks� stated capital.
The awards night climaxed the 10th anniversary celebration of uniBank Limited in Ghana.
All the foreign banks operating in the country have met the capital requirement introduced by the Central bank with the exception of Sahel Sahara. Also, all the indigenous banks have met the requirement with exception of some five financial institutions including HFC Bank, uniBank, Fidelity Bank, Prudential Bank and NIB.
The Trust Bank and Ecobank Ghana merged this year to realise their goal of meeting the central bank�s minimum capital requirement while Access bank and Intercontinental Bank took similar action.
Recent financial statements of Ghana Commercial Bank and CAL Bank indicate they had posted impressive performances at the end of the third quarter of this year. While GCB recorded 129 percent profit at the end of September, CAL posted more than 225 percent profit.
Also, Ecobank Ghana and Standard Chartered Bank Ghana recorded 64 and 36 percent profit respectively.
GCB�s nine-month profit increased to GHC87 million compared with GHC38 million in the same period last year. Net income also rose from 33.5 percent to GHC276.9 million.
Analysts have attributed GCB�s remarkable performance to the restructuring of its loan book. Conversely, loans and advances of Stanchart increased by 61.5 percent. But interest income dipped from GHC 151 million to GHC149 million.
The customer deposits of Ecobank Ghana also increased by 44 per cent.
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