Our Banks are Primitive - Ministers

Veteran Economist and Senior Minister, J.H. Mensah (MP) and Finance and Economic Planning Minister Yaw Osafo-Maafo, (MP) have accused banks and financial institutions in the country of operating primitively and in poor fashion.

While Mr. Mensah thought the banking system as presently structured is directly responsible for the seeming refusal of many Ghanaians to save because they generate and supervise delays in their operations. Mr. Osafo-Maafo condemned the attitude of the banks towards clients because “the system has no respect for time, whilst bank workers treat customers with impunity.”

Explaining, the Senior Minister said “the banking system causes a lot of delays, banking halls are very poorly organised and people spend hours in queues” just to transact legitimate business. He recounted the pathetic hostile attitude exhibited by staff of a leading bank he had visited towards him, adding that most of the financial institutions are so primitive that they turn away investors and tourists as a result of the inconveniences they are subjected to. The Senior Minister said these in his submission in support of the new “Payment System Bill” currently before Parliament.

The Bill is to provide the legal framework for the establishment, operation and supervision of electronic and other forms of payment, clearing and settlement systems and for the rights and responsibilities of transacting and inter-mediating parties. When passed, it would strengthen the Bank of Ghana to deliver a strong and effective banking supervision. It will also allow Ghana’s banking laws to achieve reliability with rising international principles and standards of banking supervision so as to ensure improved financial strength.

The Senior Minister did not understand why a lot of the financial institutions in the country continue to make it so impossible for people to use travellers’ cheques. In fact, some forex bureau operators bluntly refuse them, which to him is derailing efforts to promote investor confidence in the Ghanaian economy. He was optimistic that the new payment system will help check the numerous inefficiencies in the system and urged the banking community to take advantage of the new system in order to modernise their operations to conform to modern standards.

Finance and Economic Planning Minister Yaw Osafo-Maafo, (MP) who moved the motion thought it was imperative that the Banking Bill is passed into law to give the Bank of Ghana (BoG) the necessary legal backing and authority to effectively regulate and supervise the banking sector in the country. He said the introduction of the new system is an expression of the government’s commitment to modernising the entire banking system, promoting efficiency and investment, which he claims would generate confidence and inject sanity into the financial sector.

As to how Internet fraudsters could capitalise on the credit card system for 491 purposes, Minister Osafo-Maafo assured that proper mechanisms would be put in place to curb such occurrence. He revealed that finance the ministry is currently investigating one such case, which he said greatly, embarrassed him. He narrated how the credit card of his guest, the president of the African Development Bank was used by such fraudsters who withdrew a sizeable amount of dollars from his account in a popular hotel in Accra.

Checks revealed that about seven of such fraud cases had been reported to the hotel authorities that week alone. In spite of the age of cash and cheques in the economy as well as the proliferation of various electronic payment instruments, Ghana has no comprehensive and integrated legislation to regulate electronic transfer of funds or check abuses, even though computer related frauds abound in both domestic and international payments. Worst still, the Evidence Decree, 1975 (NCRD 323) is silent on the admissibility of electronically stored information as evidence in law. Although section 51 of the Decree gives discretion to the court to accept relevant evidence, the Payment Act would remove any doubt surrounding the admissibility of electronically stored information as evidence.