A private legal practitioner, Yaw Oppong has said that that the Bank of Ghana erred in transferring deposits of five indigenous banks it collapsed recently.
According to him, the Bank of Ghana could not have had the right to cause the transfer when it had said that deposits are safe and had appointed a receiver whose duty it was to take charge of the assets and liabilities including deposits of the collapsed banks.
[contextly_sidebar id=”vHAxWWEBYBg7mXUo9dtN9HlWxUafZG7X”]The Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addison earlier this week announced that it had revoked the licenses of five banks; Sovereign, Beige, Construction, Royal banks and uniBank.
He said the banks had committed various offenses against the country’s banking laws including obtaining their licenses through false pretenses.
The governor said the five had therefore been collapsed into a new bank; the Consolidated Bank of Ghana and deposits of the collapsed banks had been transferred to the Consolidated Bank.
But Speaking on the Big Issue on Saturday, Lawyer Yaw Oppong said, “we are told that deposits of the five banks are safe and have been transferred to the consolidated bank. My question is, under what authority did the Bank of Ghana transfer the deposits? Because you have at the same time appointed a receiver and that receiver’s functions have been clearly laid out,” he said.
Yaw Oppong stressed that “the receiver is to take over possession of the assets and liabilities. Are we saying that the depositor’s monies are not part of the assets? Under what law were they able to transfer the assets [monies] to the new bank? I have a problem with that…If depositor’s monies are safe, on what basis are you now creating a new bank to transfer the safe deposits to a new bank?,” he questioned.
Blame BoG for ‘collapse’ of banks – PEF Boss
The President of the Private Enterprise Federation (PEF), Nana Osei Bonsu has criticized the Bank of Ghana (BoG) for its role in the current crisis in Ghana’s banking sector.
Speaking on Citi TV’s Point of View, Mr. Osei Bonsu said, the central bank is to blame for the current banking struggles.
Nana Bonsu said the struggles of the banks could have been averted if the regulator was diligent with its supervision.
“If we had adequate [and] competent people within the Bank of Ghana who could do the analysis of banks’ potential licensing requirements and also review periodically their operations, this thing could not have occurred”, he intimated.
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By: Jonas Nyabor/citinewsroom.com/Ghana
