HCF Bank, a leading bank in Ghana, has announced that it will extend its unique banking services to the Volta, Upper East and Upper West regions of the country this year.
The move, the Managing Director of the bank, Robert Le Hunte, said, would enable the bank send its world class banking services to people in those regions.
He disclosed this at a media interaction to update them on the bank’s just-ended mandatory tender offer (MTO) to shareholders of HFC bank, which closed on Thursday May 7, 2015. Following that successful offer to the shareholders of HFC Bank, Republic Bank has increased its shareholding in HFC Bank to 57.11 percent.
This gives Republic Bank majority ownership, and makes the HFC Bank the fifth banking subsidiary within the Republic Bank Group.
Mr. Hunte said: “As we are all aware, the results of the MTO are out, and Republic Bank is the majority owner of HFC Bank with 57.11% shares. To date, Republic Bank has invested $75 million in HFC Bank.
“Republic Bank’s majority shareholding of the HFC Bank means HFC Bank has become part of the Republic Bank Group, headquartered in Trinidad and Tobago; a bank that has been in existence for some 176 years.”
“It is this rich history that is now being available to shape the future of HFC Bank. We are happy that the MTO has ended successfully after a long journey. Such successful transactions build confidence in the investment climate that Ghana has established, and also make the Ghana Stock Exchange attractive for foreign investors,” he told journalists in Accra.
Mr. Hunte assured, therefore, the shareholders, board, management and staff of the HFC Bank that the leading Trinidad and Tobago bank (Republic Bank) would bring its 175 years experience on the Caribbean banking industry to inject dynamism into the operations of HFC bank.
He also used the opportunity to assure them that the Republic Bank would not lay off staff after the takeover of the bank. We will rather invest in building the staff skills set of the bank to meet modern trends of banking.
“I mean, we made the commitment, and as you should know, the Republic Bank, as their style whatever we see is what it is. So, if I said to you that there is going to be no staff retrenchment, then there is not going to be any staff retrenchment, and we have made that commitment to the staff,” Mr. Hunte stressed.
The bank’s MD revealed that after the takeover, the new direction of the bank would now focus on retail banking to take advantage of the huge unbanked population of over 70%.
This new direction comes after the new management of the bank had assessed the bank’s chances of climbing to be part of the top three banks in the country within the shortest possible time.
Mr. Hunte stated: “ Coming out of the our executive meeting over the weekend, we identified the retail banking sector as a low hanging fruit, and widening the range of products that HFC provides to that market segment, and also the whole idea of customer service as well, which should help rope in the unbanked.”
African Eye News.com
