All Rural and Community Banks (RCB’s) have been urged to submit monthly fraud returns to both the Bank of Ghana (BOG) and the ARB Apex Banks to aid early detection of financial malfeasances for appropriate sanctions to be taken against perpetrators.

Mr. Kojo Mattah, Managing Director ARB Apex Bank, said the move came on the back of current surge of fraudulent deals in the banks - a key issue impacting negatively on the operations of the banks in recent times.

In an address read on his behalf at the 35th annual general meeting of shareholders of the Atwima Kwanwoma Rural Bank at Pakyi No.2 in the Amansie West District of the Ashanti Region, said a database of all staff involved in fraudulent deals was being compiled to be copied to all RCBs.

Prompt and stringent punitive measures as well as actions would also be instituted against such offenders to serve as a deterrent for the perpetration of fraud.

He said many instances of the occurrence of fraud in the operations of RCBs attributed largely to non-adherence to account opening procedures, non-adherence to customer identification requirements and abuse of the credit management process, has so far been detected.

The Managing Director advised banks to seek reference from the BOG and Apex Bank whenever they were appointing new staff, stressing the need for boards of RCBs to ensure that operational control of structures in their banks were effective.

Mr Mattah urged all boards and management of RCBs to put in place measures to strengthen credit management so that its attendant negative effect on liquidity of the banks would be averted.

This, he said would enable the banks to also improve upon their profitability performance.

Mr. Patrick Owusu, the Board Chairman of the Bank, said the Bank recorded very significant increase in its equity from GH¢25,857,273.00 in 2016 to GH¢31,300,092 in 2017 representing 17.19 per cent growth.

The investment portfolio also grew from GH¢79,302,811.52 in 2016 to GH¢92,487,798 in 2017, while the bank’s total loans and advances stood GH¢24,861,770 in the year under review.

The banks total deposit grew from GH¢101,841,580 as against GH¢87,007,400 in the previous year, while total assets also grew from GH¢118,020,419 in 2016 to GH¢138,016,601 in 2017.