Ghana’s banking industry came second after Nigeria in the ECOWAS sub region with an asset size of 14.27 billion dollars according to Ecobank Research latest analysis.

However, the rest of the 14 countries in the region have banking sectors that are less than one billion dollars each.

According to the report, the banking penetration in the country is still low at 39 percent.

This indicates that there are still opportunities for further expansion of the banking sector balance sheet in Ghana.

The key opportunities for the balance sheet expansion it said to come from the oil and gas, cocoa, and telecom sectors, where transactions are usually large.

Meanwhile, the top five banks accounted for 45.8, 36.3, and 47.2 percent of aggregate assets, loans, and deposits respectively in 2012.

They also accounted for 47.5 percent of the industry branch network, which grew from 360 branches in 2004 to 833 branches in 2012.

The report added that the branch network is set to increase in the next three years as banks implement their expansion strategies.

Stanchart, CAL, UT and Royal Bank are the ones expected to increase their branch network.

Currently, CAL is executing a three year strategy aimed at increasing its branch network from 18 in 2012 to 30 branches while Stanchart is aiming to double its branch network from 21 branches in 2011 to 42 branches by the end of 2015.