Bank of Ghana
A former banker, Samuel Okyere, has blamed former governors of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) for the recent collapse of some seven banks in the country.
He made the disclosure at the launch of a book that he wrote based on research in the banking sector and his experience.
In his presentation, Mr Okyere described the ex-governors of BoG, auditors and Security and Exchange Commission as sleeping Godfathers, who could have done more to salvage the reputation of the defunct banks, particularly UT Bank where he previously worked.
He also charged existing banks to have good philosophy and not drift away from their vision.
“Banks must not be over confident in their management, especially when given out loans.
“We sometimes get over confident when we can only know something that is true and knowable. So for example I cannot know for a fact that you will pay your loan, I can only have a probability to tell to a certain extent whether you will pay,” he said.
Dr Francis Mensah Sasraku, a banking consultant, who was the keynote speaker at the launch, said that the lessons learnt from the banking crisis should serve as blueprint for the banking sector moving forward.
According to Dr Sasraku, “There are a lot of key lessons we can take from this. There are two types of banking structure in this regard; that is banks that are too big to be saved and those that are too big to fail. The banks that fall in the latter should practice simple banking system. There are some key lessons that we can learn from what we have experienced, the first one is if you know your bank is too big to be saved, do not wait for the regulator. Simply choose, as part of your DNA right from the board chairman down to the last person, to practice simple excellent banking.”
By Melvin Tarlue & Amanallah Tahiru