With 64 years’ experience, assets in excess of GH¢6 billion, net profit of GH¢299 million and cash and cash equivalents of GH¢1.2 billion (all in 2016), the bank said, it had the right experience and capacity to take care of the banking needs of the customers of the erstwhile UT and Capital banks, hence the need for the customers to remain calm, while the integration process continued.

 “Let me also take this opportunity to emphasise that depositors’ funds are protected. You can go to the branches that you have used since time immemorial and you will be served,” the Managing Director of the GCB Bank, Mr Anselm Ray Sowah, said at a press conference in Accra on Tuesday.

The assurance came a day after the Bank of Ghana (BoG) had revoked the licences of the UT and the Capital banks following their heavy deficiency in capital and liquidity.

 Following the revocation, the central bank subsequently approved a P&A agreement with the GCB Bank to assume ownership of the deposits and selected assets of the now defunct banks.

The action automatically made staff of the erstwhile UT and Capital banks employees of GCB.

While urging customers to remain calm, Mr Sowah also used the opportunity to welcome staff of the two failed banks onboard the GCB Bank family, but said their fate with the new employer would be fully determined after a skills assessment had been completed.

The assessment is meant to give the GCB a clearer understanding of skill gaps in the enlarged GCB Bank for it to determine the employees to keep and those to retrench.

“As part of the integration process, we need to know whether or not we can bring everyone on board. This is an expanded institution and as we go through the integration, we should know jobs to close down and what jobs to retain,” he said.

He, however, advised employees with claims relating to their previous employment to talk to the receiver, PricewaterhouseCoopers Ghana Limited.

Impact of deal

On the impact of the deal on the GCB Bank’s operations, Mr Sowah said it fitted well into the growth strategy of the bank and management would work to leverage it to the good of the bank and its stakeholders.

He was hopeful that the takeover would translate into increased profit for the bank in the coming years.

When asked if taking over counterpart banks was part of the growth strategy of the bank, the managing director said the P&A deal came as a rare opportunity and the GCB Bank, as a business, decided to capitalise on it.

“This came to us and we saw it as an opportunity for the bank to do certain things in a particular way. This was not an overnight decision; it was taken very carefully and strategically. We know where we want to take this bank and we believe that with this expansion, we will move it towards that direction,” he said.

Expanded focus

The GCB’s assumption of the two banks increased its branch network from 161 to 214 branches and its list of depositors is also expected to increase, giving it a stronger ability to attract deposits at low cost.

Mr Sowah said the bank would seek to leverage those additional advantages to attract deposits from various sectors of the economy.

“This will enable us to on-lend at lower interest rates for the benefit of the small and medium enterprises (SME) sector, long identified as the backbone of the national economy,” he said.

He explained that the GCB Bank’s Relationship Manager would stay in contact with SME and corporate customers to ensure that the bank provided them with “excellent services that will promote the sustainability and profitability of their businesses.”

Know this

The fate of employees of the erstwhile UT and Capital banks will be decided after their new employer, the GCB Bank Limited, has completed a skills assessment that will determine the number and type of staff to keep and those to retrench.