UPSA Law Sch holds Quarterly Banking Roundtable on corporate governance and risky dealings in banks
UPSA Law School has held its Quarterly Banking Roundtable on corporate governance and risky dealings in banks to proffer remedies, recommendations for improvement in the banking sector, future policy planning after the banking crisis caused by the failure of institutions to adhere to good corporate governance rules leading to revoke of some financial firms.
Prof. E. Kofi Abotsi, Dean, UPSA LAW School
Mr. Ismail Adam, Assistant Director and Deputy Head of Banking Supervision, Bank of Ghana
Mr. Michael Mensah-Baah, Chief Operating Officer, Absa Bank Ghana.
Gertrude Amorkor Amarh, Coordinator, UPSA Quarterly Banking Roundtable & Lecturer, UPSA Law School, Accra-Ghana
Speakers at the discussion were Mr. Emmanuel Yao Klinogo, Lecturer at Institute of Directors-Ghana, Mr. Ismail Adam, Assistant Director and Deputy Head of Banking Supervision, Bank of Ghana, and Mr. Michael Mensah-Baah, Chief Operating Officer, Absa Bank Ghana who are well-vexed hands in the banking space.
Ghana’s banking sector was hard-hit by crisis that resulted in systemic shocks such as panic withdrawals, job losses, locked-up of deposited funds, savings, investments and collapsed of businesses.
Licences of nine commercial banks, two finance houses, 386 microfinance and micro credits companies, 53 fund managers; and 23 savings and loans firms were revoked as part of the banking sector clean-up exercise due to breaches of Act 930 coupled with severe impairments of their capital and inability to meet the regulator’s new minimum capital.
Clearly, the banking crisis negatively impacted and eroded confidence in the financial sector. This has also affected the investment banking sub-sector.
The banking crisis requires urgent need for players within the financial services industry to adhere to good corporate governance practices in line with the Bank of Ghana’s regulations to flourish after the banking sector clean-up exercise.
It is against this background that the UPSA Law School through its Quarterly Banking Roundtable assembles persons with great banking acumen and technical know-how to digest the backing sector issues with sharp lenses and knowledge to proffer solutions and scale up advocacy on strict enforcement of corporate governance rules aimed at improving the banking industry in the country.
The Quarterly Banking Roundtable (QBR) is a brainchild of the UPSA Law School solely to create a platform to sustain debates on burning issues facing the banking sector in Ghana.
Started in less than a year, the QBR has become the most trusted platform for deconstructing, decongesting and unpacking the emerging challenges confronting the banking sector in Ghana, solely to proffer remedies whilst spelling out tested and proven mechanisms for resolving them.
Apart from the revoke of licenses by the regulatory regime, intensifying education by financial services industry players is crucial to restoring the confidence of customers in the sector.
In this regard, the remedy also demands that the regulator of financial sector including Bank of Ghana, Securities and Exchange Commission and other book runners of banks must stamp their authority to ensure that corporate governance structures of financial institutions are strong.
With the reports on revocation of banks pointing out breaches of corporate governance rules in Ghana, accounting for collapse of many banks, managers of banks and other financial institutions ought to desist from using clients’ funds for operational activities.
Speaking at UPSA Quarterly Banking Roundtable on Corporate Governance and Risky Dealings in Banks on Thursday 15 July 2021 via zoom, the Dean of UPSA Law School and Constitutional Law Expert Prof. Ernest Kofi Abotsi said “the banking sector crisis could be partly attributed to the failure of institutions to fully adhere to good corporate governance and lack of well- established structures”.
Contributing to the debate, well-vexed hands and seasoned banking sector practitioners at the UPSA Quarterly Banking Roundtable including Mr. Emmanuel Yao Klinogo
Lecturer at the Institute of Directors-Ghana. Mr. Ismail Adam, Assistant Director and Deputy Head of Banking Supervision, Bank of Ghana and Mr. Michael Mensah-Baah, Chief Operating Officer, Absa Bank Ghana suggested that banking sector players need to be taken through recent reforms in the financial sector and their implications for the banking industry and how to invest in financial instruments after the clean-up exercise.
Meanwhile, Coordinator for the QBR and a Lecturer at the UPSA Law School Gertrude Amorkor Amarh has expressed confidence that “QBR is fast becoming the number one and the most trusted platform to table over pertinent issues affecting Ghana’s banking sector whilst proffering workable, tested and proven solutions to resolve same”.
The 2021 UPSA Quarterly Banking Roundtable focused on Corporate Governance and Risky Dealings in Banks sponsored by Absa Bank Ghana with supports from Joy 99.7, Asaase Radio and African Editors/africaneditors.com (Global Voice of Africa)
Source : africaneditors.com
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