Savings and loans companies are hoping their gains in the non-bank financial service sector will not be eroded by the excesses in operations of microfinance firms.Regulated activities under the Non-bank Financial Institutions Act 2008, increased from a single tier to four tiers, to include microfinance companies, Susu collectors, money lenders and Financial NGOs.Savings and loans companies have traditionally operated at the first tier.As the sector becomes more competitive, microfinance firms have been identified as potential threat to savings and loans companies, especially in competition for clients.But public apathy arising from poor operations of some microfinance institutions (MFIs) is a concern to market leaders. Some MFIs, in recent times have had to collapse or entered liquidity challenges.The major threat to the industry is building public trust and confidence, stated Yaw Berhene Bonsu, Head of Legal and Compliance Unit at FIRST ALLIED Savings and Loans Limited.“When you have stories of microfinance institutions in the past running away with customers’ deposits, there is the fear that as the microfinance sector grows, with all these financial houses mushrooming, there might be a repetition of businesses bolting away with customers hard earned deposits”, he observed.Mr. Berhene Bonsu is however hopeful the regulator, Bank of Ghana, will closely monitor the activities of the MFIs to boost confidence in the industry whilst the savings and loans companies “will have the assurance that the trust we have built with our clients over the period will not be eroded”.The Ghana Association of Microfinance Companies (GAMC) has been seeking a mandate from the regulator to play a supervisory and oversight role in the microfinance industry.Collins Amponsah Mensah, National Chairman of GAMC says such responsibility would empower the Association to inject disciple and sanity among members.