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The sterling performance of some banks per their unaudited third-quarter financial statements is indicative of efforts towards meeting the new capital requirement from the Bank of Ghana (BoG).

The banks have adequate reserves, income surplus among others, enough to secure them firmly against unexpected contingencies.

HFC Bank, which will soon rebrand to Republic Bank, returned to profitability, registering GH¢18 million profit in the nine months of 2017, as against GH¢26 million loss the same period last year.

Its stated capital and statutory reserves stood at GH¢96.1 million and GH¢57.2 million respectively in September 2017.

Its NPL and Capital Adequacy stood at 24.61 percent and 16.03 percent respectively at the end of quarter three 2017.

The Royal Bank also improved its books as it recorded 378 percent profit in quarter three 2017 to GH¢5.83 million. Its profit in September 2016 was GH¢1.2 million.
Shareholders’’ Funds stood at GH¢121.7 million at the end of September 2017, out of which GH¢150 million is stated capital.

Its NPL and Capital Adequacy stood at 21.76 percent and 12.77 percent respectively at the end of quarter three 2017.
Though its profit dipped during the third quarter of 2017, Ghana’s number one bank, Ecobank Ghana made a handsome profit of GH¢172 million, compared with GH¢273 million in quarter three 20116.

Its income surplus at the end of September 2017 amounted to GH¢158 million, while statutory reserves and stated capital stood at GH¢339 million and GH¢226 million respectively.

Its NPL and Capital Adequacy stood at 12.04 percent and 10.23 percent respectively at the end of quarter three 2017.

GCB Bank whose profit dipped from GH¢ 277.9 million in quarter three 2016 to GH¢125.6 million at the end of September 2017 had strong statutory reserves of GH¢210 million at the end of quarter three and a stated capital of GH¢100 million.

The second biggest bank in Ghana according to its unaudited financial statement had a strong capital adequacy of 27 percent and a non-performing loan (NPL) ratio of 12 percent for the nine months of 2017. Impairment however shot up from GH¢34.9 million in quarter three of 2016 to GH¢103 million in quarter three of 2017.

On the other hand, Standard Chartered Bank registered a 24.2 percent profit for the nine months of 2017 to GH¢231 million.

Its income surplus at the end of September 2017 amounted to GH¢320 million, while statutory reserves and stated capital stood at GH¢211.5 million and GH¢121 million respectively.

However, its NPL still remained high at 44.91 at the end of September 2017, a 3.95 percent reduction from the same period last year. Capital adequacy ratio was 28.27 percent in September 2017, as against 21.59 percent in September 2016.
Despite a high NPL, loan and advances was higher at GH¢1.25 billion in quarter three 2017, compared with GH¢1.17 billion in quarter three 2016.

For UMB, an indigenous bank, it recorded more than 190 percent profit at the end of September 2017, to GH¢35 million.

Its stated capital and reserves at the end of September 2017 were GH¢208 million and GH¢26 million respectively.

Bad loans also reduced drastically from GH¢837 million in September 2016 to GH¢18 million in September 2017. Whilst its capital adequacy was 10.4 percent, its NPL was 12 percent.

According to the Banking Sector Report for 2017, profitability in the banking sector declined for the period ending June 2017 compared with the same period last year with profitability indicators such as the banks’ return on assets and return on equity declining.

The industry’s income before tax of GH¢1.53 billion contracted by 0.4 percent year-on-year in June 2017 compared to a 3 percent annual growth in June 2016. The decline was due to factors such as, modest growth in loans and advances, increasing non-performing loans, lower yield on investments and net interest income. Growth in operational costs also led to further declines in income before tax for the industry.