The Foreign Affairs Minister-designate, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, says she is still uncertain whether the closure of Ghana embassy’s bank accounts in Brussels is in any way related to the blacklisting by the European Union.

“The decision of ING bank to close the accounts that our embassy in Brussels holds with them was a decision that came to us as a surprise,” she said during her vetting by Parliament's Appointments Committee.

In October 2020, the ING Bank served notice to Ghana’s embassy in Brussels of their decision to terminate all business relations it had with the embassy.

It premised its action on Article 59 of the bank’s General Regulations which states:

“Without prejudice to the provisions stipulated by specific agreements or regulations, in particular the Special Regulations for Payment Transactions, for Transactions and services covered by these Regulations, both the Client and ING may – without being required to justify their decision – terminate all or part of the business relationship they have entered into, subject, where appropriate and at the request of the other party, to compensation for any loss suffered as a result thereof, which the other party shall substantiate. The party which wishes to terminate its business relations shall notify the other party of its decision in writing…”

It informed the embassy to transfer all its funds from the bank to another bank before November 12, 2020.

According to Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, the embassy’s bank accounts were not being used for anything untoward to deserve such harsh action from the ING Bank.

She said following personal checks of various bank statements it revealed the accounts had been used for official duties only.

“The accounts of embassies usually apart from the inflows of compensation and goods and services and in cases where they have accounts that receive visa fees and passport fees, nothing else goes through those accounts. So it came as a surprise to us.

“At some point we even wanted a joint mission of parliament and my ministry to go to Brussels to find out. Unfortunately because of Covid we could not embark on that mission.

"But the bank has come back to us to say that it is the right of a bank to disengage from a customer and they have no responsibility to any customer to give reasons why.

“To satisfy myself because the mission could not go to Brussels, I asked for bank statements for all the accounts that are run by the mission going back three years and we have painstakingly gone through every transaction and there is absolutely nothing untoward.”

She, however, noted that other embassies that have suffered the same fate with their bankers have also been blacklisted by the EU.

Ghana had been blacklisted by the European Union for non-compliance with money laundering and terrorism financing regulations and that placed further burdens on banks that dealt with transactions from such countries.

The banks are required to do enhanced due diligence on transactions from blacklisted countries such as Ghana and report on such transactions, which places additional cost on the banks, the minister explained.

She has, however, stated that concerning the blacklist, Ghana has made progress in meeting EU requirements and thus will in February will present a report of progress the country has chalked in checking financial malfeasance and apply to be taken off the blacklist.