The Governor of the Bank of Ghana has highlighted the need for bankers to exude ethical behaviour to rebuild the dwindling confidence in the industry.

According to him, even though the number of fraud cases has reduced in 2023, the figure is still alarming.

This he said calls for the need to educate bankers on proper ethical behaviour.

These were contained in his speech read on his behalf by Bernard Otabil of the Central Bank at the National Banking and Ethics conference under the theme: Redefining professionalism in banking through ethics.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the Banks, SDIs, and PSPs Fraud report, the Bank of Ghana issues yearly, strongly signal that our focus on ethics and ethical behaviour should be strengthened. A single case of fraud, involving an employee of a bank or any financial institution, affects the whole industry and weakens public confidence in the industry.

“Although the 2022 Banks, SDIs, and PSPs Fraud report showed a decline in staff involvement in fraud cases to 188 in 2022 from 278 in 2021, the persistence of these unethical acts among employees of Banks and SDIs remains a concern. As reported, most of the incidents involving bank staff had to do with cash theft (cash suppression) from customers’ accounts and fraudulent withdrawals on accounts of customers,” parts of the speech read.

Governor Addison noted that these trends show the need to educate and teach ethical behaviour among the staff of financial institutions.

These he noted include 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.

“This would also help banking professionals develop the knowledge and skills to navigate complex ethical dilemmas as well as anticipate and deal properly with ethical blind spots,” he noted.

SSD/NOQ

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