The President of the Ghana Association of Bankers, Alhassan Andani, has ruled out the possibility of acquisition, mergers or a takeover within the banking industry.

Alhassan Andani, who is the CEO of Stanbic Bank, a leading universal bank, told the Economy Times that “I don‘t envisage any takeover, merger or acquisition should the Bank of Ghana announce a new minimum capital requirement.”

He said the banks are well prepared to meet the new minimum requirement anytime it will be announced.

“The banks are solid and adequately prepared to shore up their shareholders’ funds any time their statutory regulator, the Bank of Ghana announces the capital new requirement,” he said.

He said the banking industry is very solvent ready for the new capitalization program.

Total assets of the banking sector stood at GH¢86.72 billion as at end-June 2017, indicating a 30.8 percent growth from GH¢66.29 billion in June 2016 which was 13.2 percent year-on-year growth over the previous year.

The Banks' domestic assets which constituted about 91 percent of the sector's total assets as at end-June 2017 largely accounted for the increase in banks‘ total assets within the year.

Changes in banks‘ investment portfolio, a constituent of domestic assets, contributed the most to the increase in the sector‘s tot assets between June 2016 and June 2017, recording 54 percent growth from GH¢16.39 billion in June 2016  to GH¢25.39 billion in June 2017.

Net advances remained the largest component of bank assets constituting 36.5 percent of banks‘ assets in June 2017.

Its share, however, dropped from 43.1 percent in June 2016 with the difference largely picked up by investments, highlighting banks’ shifting preference for less risky financial assets.