Ecobank Ghana Limited has today completed its merger with The Trust Bank (TTB), creating a bigger bank that is strongly positioned to serve the growing banking needs of the Ghanaian economy.
Ecobank is keen to expand its SME activities, hence the merger with TTB which has a strong presence in the local corporate and SME sectors and is seen as highly complementary to Ecobank Ghana�s leading role in retail and corporate banking.
The combined networth of the new entity will now total about US$225million after the addition of TTB�s US$65million to Ecobank�s hitherto US$160million in capital. The enlarged business now has the highest single obligor limit in the industry, which allows for increased lending.
Additionally, the combined entity offers customers access to a wider network of 78 branches, 165 ATMs across Ghana, over 1.6 million Visa-branded ATMs worldwide and 24 million Point of Sale Terminals. Ecobank also now provides a wider range of improved products and services to its customers and the banking public.
Mr. Sam Adjei, MD of Ecobank, said the merger of TTB was a strategic move by the bank to consolidate its leadership position in the Ghanaian banking industry.
�In all the 33 countries where Ecobank operates, our aim is to remain among the top-three banks in all the measurements and in all the ratios -- so after we had achieved that in Ghana after 15 years of operations, we then decided to focus on becoming the first; both in assets and in profitability.
�We realised to achieve that, we needed to grow organically by extending our reach with more branches -- or acquiring a bank that could provide the necessary synergies. We therefore decided to merge with a bank, and TTB became the natural choice because of its special positioning in the market.
�We were very strong in corporate and retail banking, and wish to be even stronger in the SMEs and the local corporate segment of the market. It became obvious to us that TTB would be the best to fit into that gap because it is performing strongly in the SMEs and the local corporate segment.�
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