Capital Requirement: FBN Bank Writes to BoG to Use Retain Earnings

FBN Bank has written to the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to allow it transfer funds from its retain earnings in a bid to meet the increased minimum capital requirement.

The approval of the request by the BoG, means the Nigerian-owned bank could be joining the likes of Cal Bank and Ecobank who have also had some transfer of funds in a bid to recapitalize and meet the December deadline set by the Central Bank.

The central bank last year raised the minimum capital requirement to GH¢400 million, equivalent to about US$100 million and commercial banks in the country have up to December 2018 to raise the amount, which represents a 333.3 per cent increase from the current minimum capital.

Banks were last recapitalized in 2012, when the BoG asked them to raise their stated capital from GH¢60 million at the time to the current GH¢120 million.

That round of recapitalization led to the consolidation of three banks, The Trust Bank (into Ecobank), Intercontinental Bank (into Access Bank) and Amalgamated Bank (into Bank of Africa).

Speaking to Starr Business, the Managing Director of FBN Bank, Gbenga Odeyemi said the bank’s request is within the Central Bank’s regulation and that for a bank to be able to shore up its minimum capital requirement, it can ask the regulator to allow it capitalize the retained funds.

“That’s what we are doing. We have applied to the Central Bank and we are sure they will give us approval very soon,” he told Starr Business’ Fred Dzakpata.

Source: Starrfmonline