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NDC Director of Elections Samuel Ofosu Ampofo has supported a call for bi-partisan investigation into the takeover of UT and Capital banks by the GCB bank Ltd.

The Central Bank on Monday, August 14 revoked the licenses of the two banks and gave approval to the GCB bank to acquire them.

The Central bank feared severe capital impairment by the two affected banks and so selected GCB bank for the takeover because of its competitive edge on basis of “purchase price, cost of funding and acquiring bank’s capital adequacy ratio.”

Addressing the issue on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo', Mr. Samuel Ofosu Ampofo told sit-in-host Nana Yaw Kesse that there is a strong need for investigations to be held into the acquisition of the two banks by GCB bank.

According to him, the issue cannot be trivialized because it involves the financial sector.

Mr. Ofosu Ampofo called for a bi-partisan investigation, asking how the collapse of the two banks became inevitable.

He wondered what actions and inactions of the Directors and shareholders might have led to the insolvency of the banks.

“Assuming that the shareholders and the owners of the bank have used the money to do their private business and the bank has collapsed today, and we’re saying the government should go and use Commercial bank’s money to leverage and sustain them without investigating what led to this matter . . . The shareholders and also the Directors of the bank can be tracked down by law to find out their roles and if they played a role in collapsing the bank. What properties do they have? How did they acquire those properties? Was it as a result of the investment they did in the bank that they’ve acquired those properties or did those things? If we don’t do that, we’re setting a bad precedent. Any bank can just get up and when it encounters a problem, then government goes in to rescue them," he stressed.

He further raised concerns over the GCB bank takeover stating categorically that he has a big "problem" with the bank.

To him, GCB bank has a very poor customer relations and services, and so requested answers to how the bank acquired approval from the Central Bank.

“It is very [very] important that we don’t sweep this thing under the carpet. Again, who gave them the approval? Because there are shareholders, Board of Directors and people who have bought shares. Have they gone for AGI for them to approve of the takeover?”