Ecobank Ghana has met the Bank of Ghana’s GHS400 Minimum Capital Requirement (MCR) ahead of the 31 December 2018 deadline.

After transferring GHS190million of its surplus to stated capital, Ecobank Ghana hit beyond the GHS400 million mark by GHS16.6 million.

The central bank raised the MCR from GHS120 million to GHS400 million in August 2017 and gave all commercial banks up to the end of 2018 to meet the new requirement or risk having their licences revoked or downgraded to savings and loans companies.

Already six banks have met the MCR. Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr Ernest Addison, in late July this year, said apart from the six, there were two others that were almost there.

Addressing a press conference in Accra after the 83rd Monetary Policy Committee meeting of the BoG, Dr Addison said about 15 banks would meet the requirement by the end of this year.

Already seven local banks have gone under, since the central bank announced the new MCR.

UT Bank and Capital Bank were the first casualties. GCB Bank bought them out with the blessings of the central bank after experiencing what the BoG described as “irredeemable” liquidity challenges in August 2017.

On 31 July 2018, the regulator also announced the fusion of five other struggling local banks: uniBank, The Beige Bank, The Construction Bank, The Royal Bank and Sovereign Bank, into a totally new entity called the Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited.