Awards to promote ethical banking

He explained that given the cost implications of banks’ disobedience to industry rules and regulations, players in the field needed to be more discipline in their operations or risk raising their cost of operations.

“If banks behave ethically, they won’t fall foul of the law; the central bank won’t fine them and there won’t be capital flight from the industry to another place,” Mr Odarteifio noted.

He mentioned the 2008 financial crisis in which the unethical behaviour of some banks in Europe and the United States (US) was partly to be blamed and the recent fining of some banks by regulatory institutions in the USA and Britain as the consequences of banks’ inability to comply with industry regulations.

While encouraging banks to submit their data in time for assessment to begin, Mr Odarteifio said the awards were not just about rewarding banks but updating them on what their customers thought about their respective operations.

“It’s just not about winning the Bank Of The Year award. It is about the pressure that the awards puts on the banks to improve their operations,” he said. 

The Chairman of the Awards Planning Board, Mr Willington Vanderpuye, said his outfit had fine-tuned the awards mythology in line with the demands of the industry.

That, he said, was informed by series of discussions with stakeholders in the industry, including chief executives and managing directors of some of the participating banks.

New award categories have also been introduced, he added.

Following the launch, interested banks can now submit their data for onward assessment by the event statistician and consultants – Cedinomics and Ernst and Youngs.

Story by Maxwell Adombila Akalaare