Fidelity Bank, a Ghanaian owned bank has met the new minimum capital requirement of GHS400 million after shareholders of the bank passed a special resolution.
The resolution was passed to move GHS50 million from its income surplus and to add it to the existing stated capital GHS354 million on November 30.
Fidelity Bank had about GHS264 million minimum capital requirement even before this year. In April 2018, GHS20 million was moved from its income surplus and added to this figure.
In October GHS70 million was brought in as fresh capital before the GHS50 million resolution on Friday, November 30 to increase the stated capital to more than GHS400 million.
According to Fidelity Bank, its financial standing over the years has been strong adding the bank did not find raising additional capital a challenge.
According to the Bank, in December 2017 it ranked first in terms of top 10 banks in the country with a Capital Raito. Also, in terms of deposit-to-loan ratio, Fidelity Bank figures show it still has about 27 per cent more than most of the banks in the country.
Fidelity Bank now joins the growing list of Banks that have met the minimum capital requirement before the December 31 deadline.
According to Central Bank of Governor, Dr Ernest Addison, 22 commercial banks have met the new capital levels of GHS 400 million as the end of November 2018.
Board Chairman of Fidelity Bank, Edward Effah, said the Extra Ordinary General Meeting was important for shareholders to give their blessing and pass a resolution for the transfer of the GHS50 million capital to complement the capital requirement process.
He added that the bank is now poised to consolidate its position as a strong local bank and work to be among the top three banks in the country.
“For us, it is business as usual. We would have raised the capital even if the Bank of Ghana had not asked us to increase the capital. As you know when the capital was even GHS120 million, we had raised more than GHS200 million,” he said.
Fidelity bank ranked the first among the top 10 banks with Capital Adequacy Ratio of 27 per cent at December 31, 2017 and as at December 31, 2018, the Bank had a loan-deposit ratio of 27 per cent and a liquid ratio of 215 per cent.
Mr Effah noted that, Liquidity and profitability trade off and Fidelity Bank had not allowed the quest for profit to trade supersede its liquidity requirement.
He said the Bank didn’t need to raise its minimum capital requirement just to meet the Central Bank’s demand but also to grow its business.
Responding to whether the Bank would be comfortable if the BoG re-increases the Capital in the near future, Mr Effah said: “We don’t envisage a significant increase in the capital requirement but we are ready as a Bank. We should always remember that these are good policies for banks, they are not there to obstruct banks, but to make them more prudent and safer”.
“I think the Central Bank has done well in the last two years in making sure that the financial sector is stronger and that banks have adequate capital to do their businesses with right corporate governance, and that people who run banks are fit and proper”.
He said another reason for the Fidelity Bank’s success was its partnership with International financial entities, saying, ‘banking is not a local business but international and to be a strong bank, you need other banks to work with”.
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He therefore advised all financial institutions to partner foreign financial entities for a platform to learn and employ new and better skills and knowledge to enhance their growth.
Mr Effah said the Bank had also contributed significantly to the socio-economic development of the country through projects such as supporting Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and funding the construction of about five power stations built recently for the country.
