The ARB APEX Bank Limited has assured the public that it will work together with the Bank of Ghana to address challenges facing some rural and community banks to ensure that funds of depositors are protected.
Kojo Mattah, Managing Director of ARB APEX Bank Limited, gave the assurance in a speech delivered on his behalf by Mark Odoi Adjei, Manager in charge of Accra branch of the ARB APEX Bank at the 34th Annual General Meeting of Brakwa-Breman Rural Bank Limited held at the Ajumako in the Central Region.
He said the ARB Apex Bank will continue to support efforts aimed at ensuring a sound financial system in the country because that was the only part to a bright future for all shareholders of Rural and Community Banks.
The Managing Director congratulated the shareholders, directors, and management of Brakwa-Breman Rural Bank (BBRB) for the gains made in 2018 financial year.
“We are aware that we are not in normal times and the Profit before Tax of GH¢ 136,369 is an impressive achievement and urge you to concentrate your efforts on the medium to small business segment because that is where your strength lies”.
Mr. Matta urged BBRB Limited and their member banks to strive to perfect the small business financing because this niche segment holds a huge potential for them.
He pleaded with rural banks to desist from investing in high-risk instruments since those “too good to be true investments” often have a high potential of locking up all their assets in non-recoverable investment portfolios.
He said the banking industry has been undergoing some changes over the past few years adding that the RCB sub-sector has, however, showed a high level of resilience because many of the banks have been performing creditably well.
“We know that our success at the ARB Apex Bank is inextricably linked to the success of our banks and that is why we are always working very hard to introduce many projects which would help to improve our business processes and help to diversify the income streams of the RCBs”.
Mr. Mattah said the much-awaited ARB Apex Bank-RCBs’ Agency Banking would soon be launched adding that they have secured an $8 million grant from the World Bank for the roll-out of the agency banking.
He said cyber fraud has become a major challenge to all players in the financial services sector and has it has deployed a Security Incident and Events Management System to monitor all activities on the network.
This project is expected to be completed with the full deployment of a Security Operations Center (SOC) which would be connected to the National SOC, Mr. Mattah said.
He said in line with the new vision of the ARB Apex Bank which is: “to remain the most effective and efficient service provider to RCBs”, the bank shall endeavor to improve service delivery and commitment to the RCBs for member banks to render value-added services to their customers.
GNA
