The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has sounded a strong warning to financial institutions to tighten internal controls and strengthen cybersecurity systems in response to the alarming rise in fraud and service lapses within the country’s banking sector.
Speaking at a training workshop organised by the Financial Stability Department of the Bank, Mrs. Matilda Asante-Asiedu, Second Deputy Governor of the BoG, said the growing trend of financial crimes and poor service standards called for immediate corrective action and a renewed culture of accountability in banking operations.
Citing official figures, Mrs. Asante-Asiedu revealed that in 2024 alone, more than 16,700 fraud cases were recorded in the banking sector, resulting in nearly GH¢100 million in losses. Even more troubling, she said, was the fact that 33% of the cases involved bank staff, pointing to systemic lapses in ethics and oversight.
“This calls for greater vigilance, ethics, and discipline,” she said. “Technology must not be a tool for vulnerability but for trust. Cybersecurity must now be treated as a core business risk, not a technical afterthought.”
The Deputy Governor stressed that no level of innovation or profitability could compensate for weak governance or security failures. She urged financial institutions to actively engage the BoG’s regulatory sandbox to test new products safely while embedding security and data protection into their operations.
The training session brought together major players in Ghana’s financial sector, including representatives from the Ghana Association of Banks, PwC, and consumer reporting officers, to deliberate on the theme: “Excellence in Service, Innovation in Delivery, Security in Practice.”
Mrs. Asante-Asiedu noted that while innovation was essential to the banking sector’s competitiveness, service quality and customer care remained equally important. She expressed concern over a 7% rise in customer complaints to the BoG—from 695 cases in 2023 to 743 in 2024—and said most could have been avoided through proactive communication and better internal collaboration.
“That 2% downtime or unresolved complaint you overlook may represent 10,000 dissatisfied customers,” she cautioned. “The true measure of a strong financial system lies in how it treats its customers, not just in its profit margins.”
She also shared a personal experience from a recent trip abroad where a failed card transaction nearly disrupted her purchase, using it to illustrate how seemingly minor service failures can have significant real-world consequences for customers.
“If a deputy governor can be frustrated by a single failed transaction abroad, imagine what thousands of ordinary customers face daily when systems fail,” she said.
Mrs. Asante-Asiedu urged banks to adopt a customer-first culture, invest in employee training, and ensure that every level of management—from the board to front-line staff—embraces service excellence, transparency, and cybersecurity awareness.
In his opening remarks, Dr. Kwasi Osei-Yeboah, Head of the Financial Stability Department, said the workshop was not merely a forum for discussion but a “platform for action” — one designed to drive innovation with purpose, improve service quality, and reinforce public trust through transparency and security.
“The banking industry’s stability depends on the trust it earns,” Dr. Osei-Yeboah said. “That trust is built not only through capital adequacy but through how securely and fairly we serve the Ghanaian public.”
The workshop concluded with a call to industry players to recommit to the BoG’s vision of a safe, innovative, and customer-centric financial ecosystem that upholds integrity and strengthens public confidence.
