A Deposit Insurance Bill to provide a safety net for small savers has been placed before Parliament for consideration.
An Assistant Director at the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Mr Nesbit Banor, said once the bill came into force, it would give depositors a fall back position in the event of institutional failures.
“The bill does not ensure full recovery of deposits but seeks to provide safety net for depositors. It will ensure banks and special deposit taking institutions adhere to stricter prudential laws,” he said at the opening of a new HFC Bank branch at Adjiringanor, a suburb of Accra.
Mr Banor said such legislation would boost the supervisory role of the BoG and operations of bank holding and financial holding, among others, and engender safe and sound banking practices in the industry.
The Managing Director of HFC Bank, Mr Robert Le Hunte, said the opening of the branch formed part of the new focus of the bank, which is to build modern branches to cater for the needs of its customers.
He said the new branch “brings to 42 the total network of HFC Bank branches across the country”.
He added that the bank was operating in eight out of the 10 regions of Ghana.
That, he said, placed the bank among the top 10 banks in terms of branch distribution.
Promoting service
He said the bank kicked off the year with intensive training sessions for staff in service excellence, which was designed to equip them to better serve customers as the bank embarked on full-blown marketing of its innovative products across the country.
“I am, therefore, very excited that our cherished customers and potential ones in and around Adjiringanor now have the opportunity of banking with their bank at a location closer to them. For us, it is not just the physical banking structure that excites us but the prospects of interacting with you while working together in building this community,” he said.
Promoting service delivery
Mr Le Hunte said the bank would continue to integrate systems that had worked for it in other regions, with proven local strategies, to provide unique banking solutions that would meet the needs of the Ghanaian consumer.
“Part of our road map is to extend our services to every part of the country and eventually to the rest of the continent. We will not rest on our laurels until our targets, which translate into creating better value for all our stakeholders, are achieved,” he said.
The Managing Director of Republic Financial Holding Limited, Trinidad and Tobago, Mr Nigel Baptiste, said the bank remained committed to working with Ghana to unlock its economic potentials.
“We believe the current challenges confronting the economy are not insurmountable. The challenge of turning the fortunes of the economy round is a shared national responsibility and we are delighted that intense discussions are going on at different levels to find a collective solution to this,” he said.