The Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Paul Acquah, has assured the business community and the public at large that banks operating in the country are solid and robust enough to withstand the prevailing Global Economic Crisis. He said Ghana may not be immune from the ravaging effects of the crisis that have seen previously stable and reputed institutions gone under or sent several others scurrying for one intervention or another, but stringent stress tests indicate the local industry is quite robust to external shocks given the current levels of capital adequacy of banks, among several other measures taken to instill financial discipline. Dr. Paul Acquah was speaking at the 8th Ghana Banking Awards ceremony Saturday night at the Accra International Conference Centre which saw Zenith Bank Ghana emerge Bank of the Year for 2008. It was under the theme: Enhancing Confidence in the Ghanaian Financial System in the midst of the Global Financial Crises. He said one fundamental lesson from the global financial crises is that a sound financial sector is vital to the health of the economy, and maintained that over the past years, Ghana's financial sector has been built on a strong regulatory and supervisory framework and a modern payments and settlements infrastructure. He enumerated some of the implemented measures that should convince all of the abilities of banks in Ghana to withstand shocks and protect the soundness of the financial system as the following; "First was the increase in the minimum capital of banks from GH¢7 million to GH¢60 million after due consultation with the banking industry... Second, the Regulatory and Supervisory Framework was strengthened with the passage of the Borrowers and Lenders Act in 2008 in 2008, the Non-Bank Financial Institutions Act, also 2008; Home Mortgage Finance Act, also 2008; and the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2008... Fourth, a common electronic platform, the E-Zwich was established in the further development of the payment and development system, making it possible to link all banking institutions with a biometrics smart card as a vehicle for financial inclusion of all the population..." He said "This has facilitated the development of a banking sector that is reasonably efficient, financially innovative, competitive, profitable and growing quite rapidly. The size of the balance sheet of the banking system expanded by 372 per cent to 52.5 per cent of GDP in 2008 from 27.3 of GDP in 2003. Total deposits have risen to 34.2 per cent of GDP from 23.4 per cent of GDP in 2003. This is considerable financial deepening. The industry now has a branch network of 642, compared with 332 in 2003. Ladies and gentlemen, the Ghanaian banking sector is on a sound footing and well positioned to strengthen its inter-mediation role." Dr. Acquah said the industry's direct links to the global financial crises are mainly by way of banks' exposure to counter parties activities abroad, and explained that per his observation, captains of Ghana's banking industry do not seem to be having sleepless nights like their counterparts who have become targets of some public outrage and visible scapegoats for the crises in the industrialised countries, which have delivered a major jolt to the crises of confidence in the global financial system and heightened fears of insecurity on the part of all market players. Cautioning however, that the global conditions remain fluid, especially with regard to capital flows and investments needed to support growth in developing countries, Dr. Acquah said the fallout of the financial crises for financial institutions have been dramatic, and for developing countries such as Ghana, the crises threaten "to roll back the considerable progress of recent years in terms of economic growth and financial stability, prospects of improved standards of living and provision of social safety nets," should the effects worsen and "the impact not mitigated and well managed." At least in the immediate, Ghana has seen a slowed flow of remittances which constitute "a significant source of foreign exchange", while on the positive, "prices of Ghana's major export commodities- gold and cocoa, remain reasonably firm".