Print Options

(1) Except as otherwise provided for in this Act, a person, other than a company holding a banking licence, shall not hold itself out as a bank or use the word “bank” or any of its derivatives in any language, or any word that sounds like “bank” in the description or title under which that person is carrying on financial services business in Ghana, or make a representation  to  this  effect  in  any  billhead,  letter,  paper,  notice,  advertisement or in any other manner.

(2) The use of the word “bank” in the name of an association of banks or of employees of a bank formed for the promotion of mutual interests of its members shall not be construed as a contravention of subsection (1).

(3) Despite subsection (1), a specialised deposit-taking institution that is licensed as a rural or community bank may use the term “rural bank” or “community bank”.

(4) The Bank of Ghana may prescribe similar restrictions on the use of terminology related to other classes of specialized deposit-taking institutions.

(5) A specialised  deposit-taking  institution  shall  in  all  correspondence, publications and advertisement, use the full name of that specialized deposit-taking institution as stated on the licence issued by the Bank of Ghana.

(6) The Bank of Ghana may order a person who contravenes this section to cease using the terminology that caused the contravention and to change the name under which that person operates.

(7) A person who contravenes this section is Table to pay to the Bank of Ghana an administrative penalty of one thousand five hundred penalty units