Stanbic assures customers of highest protection
Stanbic Bank Ghana Limited, a member of Africa’s largest banking group, Standard Bank, has stressed that the protection of its customers is paramount and the bank will not compromise it in any way.
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Reacting to a case in which a contract worker of the bank, Ms Martha Amakye, is wanted for allegedly duping customers of more than GH¢900,000, the Head of Marketing and Corporate Affairs of the bank, Mr Mawuko Afadzinu, told the Daily Graphic in Accra yesterday that it was in pursuit of protecting customers’ interest that the bank, on its own volition, took the unorthodox measure of bringing up the issue and dealing with it in public.
“For us, the interest of the customers is supreme and non-negotiable and we’ll discharge our fiduciary responsibilities to them. Our commitment to high class banking and adherence to the highest standards in banking is part of us as a member of Africa’s largest bank,” Mr Afadzinu said.
According to him, the rare and isolated incident would, however, afford the bank the opportunity to “mitigate and avoid” its recurrence in future, as the bank had already taken far-reaching measures to safeguard the interest of customers.
“Our systems are strong that is why we were able to detect the fraud in the first place. Measures are underway to further enhance our already tight systems and structures to prevent, avoid or mitigate the recurrence of this and similar incidents. This is what has made us Africa’s largest bank and playing a leading role in Ghana’s financial system,” he stated.
Investigations
Already investigations were proceeding quickly to resolve any outstanding issues, Mr Afadzinu said, adding that no customer of the bank, particularly victims, would be left worse off by the unfortunate incident.
The Financial Crime Control Unit of Stanbic Bank and the Commercial Crime Unit of the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service have launched investigations into the matter which has revealed that most of the victims paid their funds meant for the investment to Ms Amakye in the banking hall, while others gave the money to her outside the bank.
Every case reported was being looked at very quickly for redress, but customers should be able to adduce some evidence to that effect, the head of marketing and corporate affairs said.
Customers
He called on customers of the bank to assist in the redress by abiding by the normal banking procedures of the bank to enable them to quickly detect and deal with issues such as this.
Background
The 33-year-old Ms Amakye, who was an outsourced worker from Noswall Management Service, a recruitment agency, absconded after the Financial Crime Control Unit of Stanbic Bank Ghana found out she was involved in some fraudulent transactions.
The suspect was a personal solution consultant or sales officer at the Tema Community One branch of the bank, who allegedly collected various sums of money from customers of the bank between 2015 and 2016 on the pretext of investing it in fixed deposits.
She promised customers interest rates of between 18 per cent and 20 per cent per month, without the consent of the management of the bank.
