Collapse of Heritage Bank politically orchestrated -- ASEPA

The Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA), has waded into the collapse of the Heritage Bank Ghana Limited, describing the action as politically-motivated.

It added that the circumstances leading to the collapse of the Bank and afterwards showed that the bank was targeted and collapsed and that no amount of explanations could undo that narrative.

The CSO in a press release signed by its Executive Director, Mr Mensah Thompson, said it should be on record that of all the banks that were collapsed, only Heritage was solvent among them.

“In other words the bank was profitable, liquid and financially sound. It was able to meet its withdrawal demands from customers and it continued to service its obligations in earnest.

“The bank was generally bubbly and on the path of becoming one of the most profitable indigenous banks only for the Bank of Ghana to cut its promising future short. As a matter of fact the Bank of Ghana even admitted Heritage Bank’s solvent nature in the statement that announced the revocation of the bank's license,” Mr Thompson stated.

On the issue of the majority shareholder of the bank, Mr Seidu Agongo being overly exposed to the bank, Mr Thompson, said It was instructive to note that Seidu Agongo owned 70 per cent of the Bank prior to its collapse.

“In 2016 when the licence was granted, the Bank of Ghana directed that he reduces his shareholding of the Bank within four years. Efforts to comply with this directive were ongoing in earnest when the licence was revoked, barely three years into its existence.

“The curious thing, however, is that during and after the collapse of the Heritage Bank, banks in operation have one shareholder owning more than 70 per cent,” he noted.

Meanwhile, the Finance Minister, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta and the Governor of the Bank, Dr Ernest Addison have all debunked earlier suggestions made that it deliberately conspired to collapse some banks in the wake of the banking sector clean-up exercise undertaken in 2017.

According to Mr Ofori-Atta some managers and directors of the banks were literally bankrupt yet were taking depositors funds and loaning them back for regeneration.