The Managing Director of Heritage Bank, Patrick Fiscian, has expressed optimism in the bank’s ability to meet the new capital requirement by the Bank of Ghana (BoG).

The central bank is in the process of reviewing the capital requirement of commercial banks operating in the country in a bid to improve their financial position as well as limit the number of banks in the country.

Currently, there are about 34 banks which have received regulatory approval from the Bank of Ghana.

Speaking to Class Business on the sidelines of the launch of Heritage Bank Limited, Mr Fiscian said the bank was ready to meet the regulator’s requirements because of the heavy investments it has made.

He said: “Initially we do not plan on raising money from the market. Our financiers are in a position to be able to meet any level of capital deemed by the Bank of Ghana to be necessary.”

“When you look around at our premises, we have started in a big way, we have invested heavily in systems on our premises and, indeed, in our people. So, we have the financial resources to meet our present and future needs.

“We will be interested in every sector of the economy and our products will be driven by the needs of the customers. It will not be driven by us choosing and picking areas which we think are just comfortable. So if there is the need we can have the right balance between our risk and the returns and that includes the [agricultural] sector.”

For his part, the bank’s board chairman, Prof Kwesi Botwchey, was hopeful that Heritage Bank would thrive in a fairly stable macroeconomic environment.

He said: “We have all faced challenges over the past few years, challenges of restoring macroeconomic stability. We are happy by the pronouncements by the new Finance Minister, who is reported to have said that even as the new government pursues its programme for employment generation, it will continue the unfinished business of fiscal consolidation and stability of our macroeconomic environment.”

“We see the gross prospects of the economy as excellent and, therefore, we are hopeful that we will be operating in a macroeconomic environment that wouldn’t be saddled with too many challenges.”