Ghana’s central bank urged the country’s banking sector Tuesday to maintain high ethical and moral standards to protect the country’s economy.
Ernest Addison, Governor of the Bank of Ghana, made this call in his keynote address read for him during the 27th National Banking and Ethics Conference under the theme, “Redefining Professionalism through Ethics.”
Addison told the banking sector representatives at the conference that the financial industry operates and thrives on trust, and the lack thereof threatens the stability and sustainability of the entire financial sector with adverse economic consequences.
“Banks are indispensable to economic growth and, therefore, have moral obligations to safeguard financial integrity in the interest of depositors and shareholders, and the economy at large,” said Addison.
Even though the central bank’s fraud report showed a decline in staff involvement in fraud cases to 188 in 2022 from 278 in 2021, the governor said the persistence of these unethical acts among staff of banks and other financial institutions remains a concern.
He said most of the incidents involving bank staff had to do with cash theft from customers’ accounts and fraudulent withdrawals on accounts of customers.
Such malpractices, he said, were partly responsible for the banking sector crisis experienced in Ghana a few years ago, necessitating a clean-up of the sector.
“These trends show the need to educate and inculcate ethical behavior among staff of financial institutions. Raising awareness of ethical issues, providing banking professionals with ethical training, and fostering a culture of ethics are important building blocks to establishing the right culture within banking institutions,” the governor added.
While the Bank of Ghana monitors proper ethical conduct among regulated institutions, it has also implemented its own internal ethics and compliance program.
The objective, he said, was to entrench ethical culture among the staff to model the culture and ethical behavior expected from a regulator of the banking industry.
The governor, therefore, urged all banks to pursue ethical business practices, “And in doing this, we must adopt a collaborative approach, involving every individual in the institution, so that doing the right thing becomes embedded in the work culture.”
Ghana started a banking sector clean-up from 2017, leading to the liquidation of 11 banks, 347 microfinance institutions, 15 savings and loans, and eight finance houses