The ARB Apex Bank Limited has rolled out comprehensive strategic initiatives,aimed at making Rural and Community Banks (RCBs) more competitive in the banking industry, Kojo Mattah, Managing Director of the Bank has said.

He said key among the initiatives is the revision of its lending programme to include facilities such as building loan, vehicle loan, on-lending loans, micro-finance loans and lean season loans.

In recent years, the Bank used to grant only asset finance facilities to RCBs to acquire property-buildings and vehicles, but the direction have changed. He added that it has also initiated "Apex Quick fix" loan to meet short-term liquidity needs of banks rated "Strong and Satisfactory" in the latest RCBs performance review report.

The advancement of ICT and e-banking has necessitated the implementation of automated teller machines (ATMs) and point-of-sale (POS) terminals to customers and non-customers of RCBs. He explained that these projects are intended to increase the commission base of RCBs as well as enhance customer convenience.

The Apex Bank has also introduced "Real time Gross Settlement" which involves the development and deployment of payments and settlement platforms with real time monitoring and notification functionalities.

The purpose is to address the treasury and liquidity management challenges of the Apex Bank and RCBs, offer a platform for RCBs interbank money market trade and an avenue for efficient use of resources and revenue mobilization.

These and more were contained in a speech read for him at the 12th annual general meeting of the Capital Rural Bank at Abesim near Sunyani.

Mr. Mattah further mentioned an upgrade of the T24 software used by RCBs. The project involves the merger of production 1 and 2. It is a technical upgrade from T24 to T24 R14.

The purpose of the project is to address the challenges faced by RCBs in the existing environment and to implement new features to enhance business operations. "It is also aimed at avoiding the payment of the extended maintenance fee," he stated.

The network of the ARB Apex Bank and RCBs experienced some challenges with the money transfer operations relating to MoneyGram international transfers. The situation was as a result of compliance reporting difficulties on the network. But the Apex MD announced that "all the issues have now been streamlined. MoneyGram has lifted the payment restrictions and therefore all payments locations on our network can now pay in excess of $200."

Mr. Mattah continued that the Bank has revised its collections platform by developing the "Transflow" collection software to facilitate the collections business of Apex and RCBs.

He said the Apex bank is concluding collaborative agreements with the following institutions: Ghana Education Service (GES), Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), Social Security and Insurance Trust (SSNIT), College of Distance Education (UCC) to sell application forms, and West Africa Examination Council (WAEC).

The rest are State Insurance Corporation (SIC), Cal Bank-Collection of Tier 2 contributions and GLICO, Star Micro Insurance and Enterprise Insurance.

The new software, he noted, is expected to increase the deposit base of banks and earn additional fee based income.