GCB Bank has met with its key corporate clients as part of its normal customer-interaction activities dubbed "CEO's Breakfast Meeting".
The event also afforded the management of the bank an opportunity to engage them on how to navigate through the current challenging times in a session themed "Thriving in Uncertainty through Partnership and Collaboration".
Moderated by Professor Noel Tagoe, the meeting brought together clients of the bank across various industries to deliberate on the way forward to navigate the recent developments within the financial sector which has impacted the bank.
The publication of the bank's Full Year 2022 results revealed that the bank had posted a Loss after tax of GH₵593m among other below-expectation developments apparently brought about by their participation in the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP).
The interaction session, therefore, offered an opportunity for the management of the bank to engage their corporate clients and allay their fears as the bank is poised to retain its position as the banking industry leader following improvements in its financial results for Q1 2023.
Speaking at the meeting, Mr Kofi Adomakoh, Managing Director of GCB Bank, admitted that the DDEP, fuelled by rising interest rate, rapid currency depreciation, high debt GDP, high inflation, amongst others, had crippled the entire banking industry with GCB not being exceptional.
He said the repercussions from the DDEP have had a direct impact on the bank's capital, liquidity, revenue and profitability as well as resulting in significant losses in returns to clients and shareholders.
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The CEO also used the opportunity to reassure the clients that the bank was well placed to navigate through the challenges as evidenced by the First Quarter 2023 Performance it had recently posted.
He shared some of the key highlights of the current performance, which include the bank's Capital Adequacy Ratio, in spite of the impact of the DDEP, which stands at 17.6 per cent, and is well above the regulatory threshold of 10 per cent.
Moreover, the bank recorded a significant growth of 27.4 per cent in Non-Funded Income to Revenue as well as an increase in total deposit base of GH₵20.12b within the period.
"This and more showed the bank's resilience against the current turbulence in the financial sector and how the bank is on the road to recovery," he said.
Professor Noel Tagoe, on his part, urged banks and businesses to find new ways of doing business.
According to him, "when there is crisis the best option is to remain calm, keep it simple and identify those factors you can control and deal with".
