Founder of think tank Danquah Institute, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, has asked Bolgatanga Central MP, Isaac Adongo, to stop blaming Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, for the plight of some struggling local banks which have gone under, as a result of – in Mr Otchere-Darko’s view – the mess created by former handlers of the Bank of Ghana under the Mahama administration.
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“When one set of banking supervisors fail so scandalously in their duties and another set is at it trying to fix that mess, let’s be modest with our mischief”, the president’s nephew said in a riposte to the opposition lawmaker who had issued a statement to ‘school’ the lawyer on banking, after he (Mr Otchere-Darko) had accused him of not knowing the difference between a commercial bank and an investment bank.
Read Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko’s full reply below:
I read that I am being schooled by Adongo on banking. That’s OK. I still blame Ace. I have just one extra take on this. The classroom is for theory.
The banking hall is for serious business; not for treating the deposits of millions of Ghanaians, who work hard for their money, with allegedly such gross, criminal negligence.
And, the media space is not just for false propaganda.
Yes, in theory a universal bank can choose to offer investment banking services and even brokerage services as part of its product offering. But, under separate licences granted by the SEC.
A true investment bank and asset manager bank, like Databank, which is only licensed by the SEC and not the BoG, cannot do what a universal bank does. This is simply what it is! So why bring Databank into a different set of regulated companies?!
Databank cannot take deposits. It is a totally different business model with a different set of natural competitors. For it to be called or described as a competitor to the likes of UT, Capital, Royal, uniBank, Sovereign, Beige, Construction Bank, etc, Databank would need to be able to take deposits, be a primary dealer, deal in forex and correspondent banking, amongst other things which IT DOES NOT DO BECAUSE IT CANNOT since it is not a universal bank.
As such, to claim that Ghanaian banks are collapsing because the Finance Minister has an ulterior motive, which is to eliminate competition against Databank, is absolutely incorrect and pure false propaganda.
When one set of banking supervisors fail so scandalously in their duties and another set is at it trying to fix that mess, let’s be modest with our mischief.
When your wife leaves you because you couldn’t give her a child. Please, don’t blame it on condom.
Is Databank or even Enterprise Group under Bank of Ghana? But, of course, we are not in a classroom to take lessons on theory. Are we? But, then again who am I? A mere lawyer with a network, peddling my influence as such.