Mr Simon Dornoo, Managing Director of the GCB Bank Limited, on Wednesday said the bank had made significant progress since it embarked upon a transformational programme in 2010 to strengthen its balance sheet in terms of liquidity and capital.

He said the bank, currently, was firmly repositioned among the top performing banks in Ghana and was one of the best value creating companies in Africa.

It would ensure that it maintained its position as the leading bank on the domestic front and in parallel, build a strong foundation for future expansion, he said.

Mr Dornoo said the bank’s new brand also reflected its current strength as a strong, accessible and reliable banking partner and projects a new image of a modern and progressive bank with a commitment to superior customer service through embracing technology, investment in its people and adopting new practices.

Mr Dornoo, who was addressing the bank’s corporate customers at a breakfast meeting in Accra, said the objective of the transformational programme was to improve the quality of service and enhance its support to customers, while at the same time investing in the transformation agenda.

“We have made significant investments in upgrading our technology infrastructure to provide the needed platform for better interaction with your esteemed customers," he said, adding that GCB now offered services through multiple channels including mobile phones, internet, ATMs and Point of Sales Terminals to complement the extensive branch networks.

Mr Dornoo said moving forward, it was critical that it regularly engaged its major clients and stakeholders, therefore, the meeting was a strategic opportunity to engage and create an open platform for customers to express their genuine concerns about the operations and services of the bank.

He said there was the need for customers to understand the credit requirements of the bank so that they would meet them without delay to save the time of doing business.

“We have also invested in credit processing systems and tools to speed up credit delivery while ensuring consistency of decision-making”, he said.

The outcome of such meetings would provide critical information to the management to enable them to make major policy changes and corrections.

Mr Dornoo said a number of activities were already on-going and the organisation would, from next year, start its branch refurbishment programme to give their branches modern, welcoming look and feel and open new branches in areas where they were under-represented.

These would be carried out in phases over the next five years, he said.

Mr George Fuachie, Head of Corporate and Business Banking, gave highlights on the importance of corporate and business banking as key growth segments of the bank’s business portfolio working closely with their treasury business.

He said the bank reviewed its segmentation based on insights into its customer base and they had aligned their corporate banking structure to ensure it got the right focus on those important segments through an expanded team of relationship managers.

The bank, he said, was also enhancing its offering in cash management, treasury dealing interface and trade finance capabilities to further reduce transaction processing turnaround time and urged customers to build and guard their credit rating to improve access to credit.