The Bank of Ghana has “suspended the foreign exchange trading licenses of First Bank of Nigeria (FBN Bank) Ghana Ltd. and Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) Ghana Ltd. due to malpractices.”
This suspension is set to last “for a month,” as revealed in a statement found on the Ghanaian financial regulator’s website this Tuesday.
Both affected banks are “subsidiaries of First Bank of Nigeria and GTBank Nigeria.”
The primary issue cited was “fraudulent documentation in violation of the country’s foreign exchange market regulations.” The suspension “can be lifted after a month, depending on how well they meet the regulator’s control measures.”
In part, the statement declared: “Bank of Ghana has suspended the Foreign Exchange Trading Licences of Guaranty Trust Bank Ghana Limited (GTB) and FBNBank Ghana Limited (FBN), effective 18th March 2024, for a period of one (1) month, in accordance with section 11 (2) of the Foreign Exchange Act 2006, (Act 723).”
It went on to explain that the suspension was “a result of various breaches of the foreign exchange market regulations, including fraudulent documentation in their foreign exchange operations which have come to the attention of Bank of Ghana.”
The statement also mentioned that “The licence will be restored at the end of the one-month suspension period once the Bank of Ghana is satisfied that they have put in place effective controls to ensure strict adherence to the foreign exchange market regulations.”
The regulator also issued a caution, saying, “By this statement, we caution foreign exchange market players to adhere strictly to the applicable forex market regulations and guidelines.”
For GT Bank, this marks “the second reported incident of violating a foreign country’s banking regulations in one year.” A previous report by FIJ highlighted that “its UK subsidiary was fined £7.6 million in January 2023 for violating anti-money-laundering systems and controls.”
“These weaknesses were repeatedly highlighted to GT Bank by internal and external sources, including the FCA, but despite this, GT Bank failed to take appropriate action to fix them,” according to the UK Financial Conduct Authority.