GN Savings ruling poses fiscal and financial-stability risks - Amin Adam

Mohammed Amin Adam warned that the Court of Appeal ruling ordering the restoration of GN Savings and Loans' licence could expose Ghana to significant fiscal and financial-stability risks. In a Facebook post on Friday, May 23, the Karaga MP said the ruling could trigger a wave of similar claims from other collapsed institutions, potentially exposing the state to compensation demands, depositor settlement disputes, asset-return claims, and recapitalisation pressures. He cautioned, "Ghana is exiting an IMF ECF arrangement with very limited fiscal space. This is not the time to create open-ended contingent liabilities."

Dr Amin Adam raised concerns about moral hazard within the financial sector, warning that politically influenced reversals could weaken deterrence and encourage future financial institutions to disregard prudential standards. He stated that "If reversals are seen as politically driven, it risks telling future bank owners that regulatory breaches can be revisited once political conditions change." According to him, the banking-sector clean-up had sent a strong signal that insolvency, weak governance, and depositor risks would attract consequences.

The former Finance Minister stressed that the restoration of a financial institution's licence cannot automatically translate into a return to operations. He argued that before any operational restart, regulators must conduct a fresh fit-and-proper assessment, capital adequacy review, asset-quality verification, liquidity assessment, governance review, and depositor-protection evaluation. He added, "Anything less would expose depositors and the broader system to avoidable risks."