The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has assured all customers of the now-defunct BEIGE, Construction, uniBank, Sovereign and the Royal banks that their deposits are safe with the newly-established and state-owned Consolidated Bank.

Dr Benjamin Amoah, Head of Research Department at the BoG told Chief Jerry Forson on Ghana Yensom on Accra 100.5FM Thursday, 2 August that: “Customers’ deposits are safe, you can walk into any branch of the Consolidated Bank and do your normal transactions including withdrawal and depositing. There is no need to engage in panic withdrawal following the merger.”

He added: “The Consolidated Bank is fully owned by the Government of Ghana and so all your deposits are safe.”

The BoG, on Wednesday, 1 August 2018, announced the merger of the five banks since they were not going to meet the minimum capital requirement of GHS400 million.

The newly-established Consolidated bank is fully owned by the Government of Ghana, with a start-up capital of GHS450 million.

The banks that have been merged are The Royal Bank, The BIEGE bank, Sovereign bank, Construction Bank and uniBank.

According to the BoG, The BEIGE, Sovereign and the Construction banks obtained their banking licence under false pretences through the use of suspicious and non-existent capital, whereas the Royal Bank had non-performing loans which constitute 78.9 per cent; and uniBank which also had a capital of GHS7.4 billion compared to the regulatory minimum of GHS400 million.