20 Corporate bodies open off-shore banking facilities

Story: Boahene Asamoah

TWENTY corporate bodies and 91 individuals from 14 countries mainly from the United States, the United Kingdom and China have established an off-shore banking facility in the country, the Managing Director of Barclays Bank Ghana, Mrs Margaret Mwanakatwe has stated.
Speaking at the 29th annual Management Day organised by the University of Ghana Business School, Mrs Mwanakatwe said “the large volumes of deposits that will flow will form the basis of developing more lending solutions to Ghana’s private sector”.
She said that the offshore banking services established in the country in September last year offered great opportunities of attracting Foreign Direct Investments into the economy.
Mrs Mwanakatwe who was speaking on the topic “Offshore Banking and the Ghanaian Economy” mentioned other benefits that the off-shore banking concepts would bring as aircraft financing and leasing, ship registration, trust incorporation assets management, insurance pension funds, consultancy services among others.
She dispelled suggestions that off-shore banking was associated with underground economy, organised crime and money laundering, stating that while Ghana’s off-shore banking was evolving and that the bank has learnt from best practises and has put in place strict rules and procedures that would check all such illegal transfers.
She noted that although off-shore banks may decide not to report their income to other tax authorities and have no legal obligation to do so, that did not make the non-declaration of the income by the tax payer or the evasion of the tax on that income, illegal.
Mrs Mwanakatwe cited examples of countries which had made use off-shore banking services such as Bermuda which had a population of about 70,000 and which ha attracted about 28 per cent of the world’s captive insurance market with 1,491 insurance companies having assets worth over $290 billion.
She added that the country’s banks held assets worth over $22 billion and the financial services sector accounted for 26 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product.
“Indeed off-shore banking provides a more friendly legal regulation, tax benefits and protection for customers”, adding that “offshore banking however is not only about access to investments products and opportunities that might not be available from domestic banks.
The Head of Banking Supervision, Mr Dela Selormey, said parliament had recently passed the anti money laundering act which was part of processes to check the transfer of illegal funds into the banking system.
He said the bank of Ghana would establish the Financial Intelligence Centre in collaboration with stakeholders to complement the activities of the banks to check the safety and soundness and to protect foreign deposits.
Mr Selormey stated that the central bank has adopted several policies such as the Customer Due Diligence (CDD) and the Know Your Customer (KYC) policies which were all meant to address some of the challenges that confronted the banking sector.
He also stated that the off-shore banking concept would help mobilise international funds, strengthen infrastructure of the banking sector and also improved the human resources of the country as well as ensure transfer of skills to the economy.
Mr Selormey mentioned some of the challenges that confronted the country in terms of attracting foreign direct investments as the need to sustain political stability, ensure efficient and effective legal system as well as ensure good corporate governance practices.