Republic Bank has rejected allegations by the Security Exchanges Commission (SEC) that it breached takeover rules in the purchase of Union Bank of Nigeria's stake in HFC Bank.

The SEC fined the Caribbean bank one million Ghana cedis for the alleged breach following a request by a shareholder of HFC Bank, one Kwasi Asante, to the Commission for investigations to be conducted into possible insider trading and breach of procedure.

The SEC however cleared the Republic Bank of insider trading, but fined it for breaching key takeover rules after the investigation.

Speaking to Joy Business Director of Africa Operations at Republic Bank, Robert Le Hunte, said although the bank disagrees with SEC's allegations of insider trading, it is working to settle the fine by end of this week upon the advice of its legal team.

He also added that Republic Bank wants to pay the fine because it does not want to hurt its chances in the HFC takeover.

"As a bank we have been committed to observing and obeying all the rules of the land and we actually acted based on the advice of lawyers", he said.

Renowned  Corporate Governance expert, Mervyn King, says there is nothing wrong with  the actions of the SEC despite criticisms by some industry players.